The Aneukarian Incident (Linnaeus)
by Manuuk7
Summary: The second of two stories that flow from the same prologue.
1. Linnaeus Prologue

_Note: First, I do not own any of the Star Trek characters other than those I make up myself. I swear._

_This is the second story, Linnaeus, starting with the same prologue. Since I realize you've already read the prologue, I added an epilogue to Apoidea, kind of like a consolation prize, yes. I'm still working on the next chapter and didn't want to hurry just for the sake of posting._

* * *

_**Enterprise**_

"Captain Archer's log. We're still in the Porcellio Gamma Three constellation. There have been no reportable events, the science teams are hard at work verifying the Vulcan star charts and cataloguing new information."

Archer clicked off the com with a sigh. Lucky scientists. The entire ship was abuzz with their excitement, Enterprise had become one giant geekfest. It was day sixteen of their assignment and as far as he was concerned it might as well have been day sixty-one. That's how long he felt this had dragged on already. Way too long. He needed some action. But hard to deflate the excitement of his teams with the news that their captain was bored.

At least he had Trip on his side, the Engineering crew had pretty much hand-buffed every last head of every last screw on board. In a little while, the numbers would be with him, there would be more bored crew members than not and the balance would start tipping. Then he could start gently asking T'Pol when they would be done without getting lectured about the invaluable data they were streaming on a daily basis.

Every day found her almost impatiently waiting to be done with breakfast so that she could run down to the labs and start another day of exploration. Of course, she'd deny every last bit of it, Vulcans didn't run and they didn't get excited, yadi, yadi, yada. But she didn't fool anyone.

"Captain, I'm getting a distress call!" Hoshi interrupted his mulling.

'Damn, Jonathan, don't you know better than ask for action?!' part of him reproached. The other part couldn't help celebrate the news that there would at last be something for him to do. To each his own.

"Hoshi, ask their coordinates and let them know we're on our way; Travis, set a course when we have them!" His commands were short, efficient. "Ah, Hoshi, also let the science teams know we're detouring for a short while, tell them we'll be back as soon as the emergency's resolved."

It was something he should have done himself, but he just didn't feel like being the messenger. T'Pol would look at him as if she suspected he'd had something to do with it, and truth be told he would'a if he could'a. That made him not wish to face her. To each his own.

* * *

It took two days before they finally spotted the alien ship, unmoving though life support systems were obviously still on. It was huge, larger than he'd expected. But then, why would a ship in distress by necessity be small? This transport was almost half the size of Enterprise, at least three decks to judge by the portholes, and a huge bow. Definitely not a design he was familiar with.

"Hail them, Hoshi, put it on the screen."

He glanced over at T'Pol and was graced with a quizzical eyebrow in return. Now that there was no more data to be collected, she was back on the bridge. He shrugged his ignorance of what was wrong with the vessel, waiting tensely for an image to appear on the main screen.

And what an image. There were a dozen or so of those beings on the alien ship's bridge. These were definitely aliens. Long, tall, and willowy. Graced with external sexual characteristics that firmly established they were female. They had a general air of kinship. They were all tall, their necks elongated beyond the Human norm, their eyes naturally shadowed, their hair a two-tone white and tan.

They were chittering excitedly with each other. Finally, one of them split from the group, came closer to the view of the bridge crew. Archer noticed there was a double edging of some sorts along the lines of the short-legged tunic that hung close to her body. He got up from his chair and walked to the screen.

"I am Captain Archer, of the Federation Starship Enterprise. We've received a distress call."

A pair of huge black eyes blinked repeatedly. She looked stupefied, like she had never seen aliens before. Usually space farers were slightly more accustomed to encountering other humanoids. She started chittering at the screen.

Archer turned to Hoshi, "The universal translator's not working!"

Hoshi was frowning, looked back up at him. "It may take a few moments to calibrate. I don't know what their root language is."

At that moment, the tall alien started talking in Standard. "I am X-Eliantix, Captain of the fulfillment vessel Tarorat. We're experiencing technical difficulties."

Archer glanced at Hoshi. "_Fulfillment _vessel?" he asked softly. She briefly shook her head, she had no idea what the translator meant. He turned his attention back to the alien. "What kind of technical difficulties?"

"Our engines won't maintain more than life support systems. We need to get back to our planet for repairs." The alien captain still seemed somewhat enervated, to judge by the repeated rapid blinking of her eyes. She was looking fixedly at Hoshi.

Archer turned to Trip, who was looking a lot chipper. This emergency was a godsend for him as well. "Perhaps we can help," Archer replied. He turned to T'Pol. "How's the atmosphere on the ship?"

"The levels are quite acceptable for Human lifeforms, comfortable even." T'Pol dropped her voice. "May I remind you of Starfleet directives -"

"My chief engineer will go over shortly with a couple of technicians, see what can be done," Archer announced to the alien captain, cutting T'Pol off because she could finish her sentence.

He knew what she was going to say. That he needed to ascertain these aliens didn't present any danger or threat, and were generally inoffensive in their disposition. If he listened to regulations, they'd never do any exploring.

Archer trusted his gut instinct, and his gut instinct was that these aliens were inoffensive.

xxx

_**Tarorat**_

A silence fell over the bridge as the aliens walked in. A dozen pair of black orbs blinked repeatedly. Finally the Captain walked over to the new arrivals. "What are you?" she asked in a half-whisper.

The alien with the gold hair bared his teeth, though it did not seem to be threatening. "We're Humans, ma'am, from a planet called Earth. I am Charles Tucker the Third, Chief Engineer on Enterprise, but call me Trip."

Trip hesitated, wondering whether it was good manners, but curiosity was the stronger. "And what are you?" he asked.

"We're Aneukarians," X-Eliantix responded. The others stood around her in stupefied silence. Trip almost felt like checking that the two technicians with him were not doing anything incongruous. He figured the Aneukarians hadn't dealt with many aliens before.

"I thought perhaps we could have a look at the engines, see if there's anything we can do for you?" Trip flashed his broadest smile again, all southern charm. Three Aneukarians separated from the group and one of them introduced herself as the engineer.

After walking what seemed to be miles of corridor, the six of them were staring at the warp coil and the blinking crystal chamber. Trip frowned, this didn't look too good.

One of the technicians siddled closer as they were taking readings. "Chief, did'ya see, they're all females!" he whispered. Trip rolled his eyes. Like he hadn't noticed. "What d'you think it is?" Awada asked again.

Trip shrugged him off with a shoulder. "We don't know their world. Perhaps the men are much smaller."

"Or perhaps the men carry babies," McBreen cut in, guffawing. Trip rolled his eyes. Since the Xyrillian incident, there'd been plenty of jabs from his men. They loved him to death, and he didnt let it bother him. "Yes, there are worlds where men stay home and have the babies. Get over yourself, McBreen."

"Or perhaps there's no men!" Awada anted up. The three of them chuckled at the thought.


	2. Linnaeus - Act I

xxx

_**Enterprise**_

"It's a mess, Jon, we need to do a complete refit of the dilithium cylinder," Trip was talking animatedly when T'Pol walked in. He acknowledged her with a nod before going on, "the best option is to replicate the parts we need here on Enterprise, but I'll need to do a full shut-down for the install. I figure it'll take two days at least."

Archer nodded in understanding. "And if you do a complete shut-down, they won't have any life support."

"For two days," Trip repeated. Two days without life support was somewhat of a death sentence.

"Perhaps we could bring them to Enterprise for two days," Archer mulled. "How many of them are there? Forty?"

"Forty-two," Trip replied.

"Captain," T'Pol interjected, "we still do not know if their race is inoffensive or what their intentions are."

"I know, T'Pol, I know," Archer groused, "but what else do you suggest? We can't kill them all in the process of fixing their engines, that'd be counter-productive, don't you think?"

"I am not advocating to deny them aid," his Vulcan officer replied, "but I advise you to proceed cautiously. You are offering to bring an alien group on board who is almost as numerous as the Enterprise's crewmembers. We need to be prepared for the eventuality they are hostile or have adverse objectives."

"I see your point -"

"-Sir?"

Trip suppressed a smile while Archer mentally rolled his eyes. Sometimes he wondered if T'Pol wasn't doing it on purpose. "I understand, T'Pol. I'll brief Lieutenant Reed. Why don't you work with him at figuring the best set-up. Trip, you'll have to try to go faster than that. I don't want them on board much longer than two days."

"As long as I have my hands on their engines they can't create too much havoc," Trip replied with a smile.

"True enough." Archer looked at both commanders. "In the meantime, why don't we invite Captain X-Eliantix and some of her officers over to dinner, see what they're made of," and quickly, before anyone could ask, "that means check their intentions, T'Pol."

xxx

_**Tarorat**_

"They have men on board!" X-Aljikax was pacing back and forth within their quarters, fuming, unable to accept the evidence her eyes had shown her.

"Come back to bed," X-Eliantix implored. X-Aljikax was a great second but too quick to get angered. "Yes, they have men on board," she placated, "they're aliens, remember. That must be normal on their planet."

"But there were more men than women!" X-Aljikax almost strangled herself with fury. "And you expect us to go there and act normal, as if this wasn't a debasement?!"

"You didn't agree to serve with me so that you could stay comfortably on Aneukaria!" X-Eliantix was getting annoyed at her lover. "We've never encountered beings like them before. They obviously are un-evolved, but that is not our concern. We still have a ship that needs fixing!"

That seemed to take the edge off X-Aljikax. She stopped pacing, came back to the bed where X-Eliantix was half-raised, sat down dejectedly next to her. "Our luck, the engines are gone, and the people who come to our aid are men," she commented drily. X-Eliantix nodded along at the irony of it all. She rubbed X-Aljikax's arm. "It's only for a short time. It won't pollute us to go. We can find out more about their species, their civilization."

"What if they're aggressive, if they try to capture us, make us hostages, or worse?" She started laughing as she said it. They obviously had nothing to fear from men.

X-Eliantix chuckled in return, but then grew serious, "Remember we don't know anything about them. Never underestimate what you don't know. Men could be the stronger sex in their species." That got the two of them laughing in long drawn out neighs, the thought was hysterically funny.

X-Eliantix grew serious, "We have to be careful not to antagonize them. Right now we're vulnerable, our ship is incapacitated. They could destroy it and make us prisoner." That sobered X-Aljikax in turn. She reluctantly nodded. "And remember the mission," X-Ealiantix went on. "They could be what we're looking for."

X-Aljikax had to admit the possibility. It would be very convenient if the ship rescuing them also provided what they had been looking for. Still, it seemed far-fetched. "Yes, and somehow they'll be compatible! Just like that!" she joked, X-Ealiantix might be a good leader, but sometimes she was over-optimistic.

"Our scientists can work with almost anything," X-Ealiantix replied.

Obviously, she was in one of her highly optimistic moods. X-Aljikax decided to drop the subject. "I promise I'll play nice, you won't have to complain," she said, "they'll never guess what I actually think of them."

X-Eliantix patted the bed next to her and X-Aljikax went to lay down. "But," the latter added, "if one of these disgusting things touches me, all bets are off. I'll take their heads off."

X-Eliantix rolled her eyes, sighing. Yes, X-Aljikax was a good companion and fun to have on the mission, but she was just too fast to anger.

xxx

_**Enterprise**_

As far as dinner parties went, the one with Captain Vanik had been a resounding success compared to their dinner with the Aneukarians. Archer forced a smile, trying to cut through the frozen silence.

Things had been somewhat promising at first, the aliens seemed to warm up when they saw T'Pol. Archer got the sense they looked at him as being of no consequence but if the aliens were happy talking to his science officer, so be it. She'd been able to ask fairly extensive questions about their planet and civilization, where they hailed from, and more importantly, what had brought them to an these parts of the galaxy. Archer had to give it to her, she was just as suspicious as Lieutenant Reed.

And then Trip had shown up. Their guests had taken one long look at him, another long look at T'Pol, seemed to sniff the air, and turned into frozen unresponsive statues who would only answer with monosyllables and avoided looking at T'Pol.

Obviously, the Vulcan had offended them in some way. Part of him was irritated, pretty certain that she had said something unpleasant to the Aneukarians without even realizing it. Wasn't that how all Vulcans went? Part of him was irritated at their guests, who obviously didn't know anything about common social courtesies. Human courtesies.

He threw a meaningful glance at Trip, received one in return. The Aneukarians had been treating them as if they were scum under their shoes. The second-in-command, X-Algeekax, — gosh, those names — almost visibly recoiled every time he tried to talk to her, as if she didn't expect him to talk or as if it was somehow offensive that he would. He threw another side glance at Trip, who was faring no better.

If the aliens wouldn't talk to the men and wouldn't talk to the women, he wasn't quite sure what there was left to do. Perhaps if they'd had a third sex on board... That reminded him of the Vissian, another cross-cultural disaster. Archer sighed again, picking up his glass of water and wishing it was Bourbon. Things didn't look promising at all. It was difficult to get any kind of useful information on the Aneukarian planet and civilization in monosyllables.

Fortunately, the end of the meal arrived. Archer pushed back from the table before anybody had the misguided idea to propose dessert or after-dinner coffee. They walked their guests to the airlock in silence, the aliens' backs stiff with distaste or displeasure or whatever it was that animated them. He gave a long-suffering sigh as the door closed on them and turned to T'Pol. "What was that all about?"

"What was what all about, Captain?" T'Pol edged.

"The way they behaved. Did you notice, at first they were fine with you, then all of a sudden it was like they couldn't be in the same room, like we were impure or something."

"Impure?" T'Pol wasn't sure she understood the Human connotation of the word.

"You know, like we were untouchable, someone they shouldn't associate with."

T'Pol blinked. She had noticed the change in behavior, it would have been quite unseemly for a science officer not to observe the difference. She had also noticed it had happened after the aliens met Trip. There were a number of possible explanations for the change in treatment, more than she could efficiently relay to the Captain. "It would be difficult to surmise which factor was the leading cause of their behavior," she finally offered as a conclusion.

Archer nodded, "It looks like the stay aboard will be more unpleasant for them than it will be for us."

"We still do not know enough about their culture, Captain," T'Pol advised him, "their reaction to us was worthy of note."

Archer frowned, thinking. "It would be hard to ask directly, we could offend them. Though I'm not sure that'll make a whole lot of difference. Can you check the Vulcan database, see if you can find anything about their society? And all the other databases, just in case." Though it was doubtful any of the other databases would have any information on the species.

"Most certainly." The mention of the Vulcan database had pushed T'Pol on a different track. "I trust that once we proceed with the repairs on their ship we will resume our initial mission of exploration?"

Archer could have groaned, and he was pretty certain Trip could have too. On the other hand, they'd just gotten a few days reprieve. "Of course we will," he quickly reassured her. Then, to change the subject, "Let Lieutenant Reed know about their attitude, see if the two of you want to change anything to how we're planning to house our guests."

T'Pol gave a brief nod, "Lieutenant Reed shares my concerns about the intentions of an alien group residing on Enterprise." Archer refrained from commenting that yes, he would expect as much, Reed was paranoid to start with. "We will triple the Anakeurians in crew member cabins. It may be slightly uncomfortable but it is only for a short duration. And in light of their behavior tonight, I would expect being with their own kind will be satisfactory to them." She didn't add that having the Anakeurians separated in individual cabins rather than housed together as a group would enable swifter external control if needed.

"Good. Trip, you handle the replicator side, let us know when everything is ready. T'Pol, given how the Anakeurians reacted today, let's try to minimize any interaction with the crew. When they do come on board, I want mainly women to interact with them. They seemed to be okay with you at first. Let's see if we can make it last longer." He slapped Trip on the shoulder, "You and I are stuck with manning the ship, I guess. A man's work is never done... It's a joke, T'Pol," he added over his shoulder as the two of them started down the corridor.

She blinked at their retreating backs. Captain Archer seemed to think she was the reason the aliens had been cold and aloof. That was most illogical. A keen observer would have noticed the change occurred when Commander Tucker joined them. Only time and observation would enable her to understand why.

xxx

**_Tarorat_**

"It's an abomination!" Going to the alien ship had not done anything for X-Aljikax's state of mind.

"That's not what we're here to discuss," X-Eliantix cut her off. She turned back to the ship's doctor, X-Igofox. "The ones we met were not compatible and one was a deviant. But there are others. We saw them when we first were contacted by the ship. Those may be compatible."

X-Igofox nodded in agreement, "I would need to run some tests, make sure they are carriers. But you both realize that even the deviant... physically it doesn't change anything?" She hesitated. "Are you sure it was a deviant," she added. These people were aliens after all.

"Deviants!" X-Aljikax spat through her teeth, "I will kill them myself rather than let them destroy the fabric of our civilization!"

X-Igofox carefully eyed the second-in-command. One couldn't argue with beliefs. No proof in the world would convince X-Aljikax that she was foregoing viable candidates. She decided to change the subject. "What have you observed?" she asked X-Eliantix.

"Very little, unfortunately. Once we realized these were not potential sources, we stopped sharing information." She turned to X-Aljikax, "Perhaps the answer is to go back, meet with more of them, see if there are any who could be compatible."

"Even a single one is better than none," X-Igofox reminded them. She addressed X-Aljikax, "And I know this will be disagreeable to hear but even deviants could be used. It has been generations since we've had a purification ceremony."

The captain and her second nodded as they considered the possibility. X-Eliantix turned to the doctor, "How are you going to get what you need?"

"What about those who come on our ship? We could start with them," X-Aljikax offered.

"I can scan them," X-Igofox agreed, "so we can learn how they're different. It will give me a basis for research."

"Make sure they don't know about it," X-Eliantix warned. The less the aliens knew about their plans, the better. "We need to learn more," she turned to X-Igofox. "We'll ask for you to go on the ship, meet with their healer. Find out everything you can about their species and about those on the ship. Perhaps we can't use them but we need to have the information."

xxx

_**Enterprise**_

"I'll be happy to help you in any way I can," Phlox smiled from ear to ear at X-Igofox, "between colleagues, it's the least we can do." The way the alien woman was staring at him was disconcerting. Like he was somehow unworthy. "Now, when will you be available for a full-body scan? I would love to know more about Aneukarians, add your species to the Interspecies Medical Exchange Database."

X-Igofox didn't seem to be hearing him. Phlox cleared his throat to catch her attention. She looked at him as if he were something vile caught under her shoe and he took a step back. "Are you a man?" she asked.

"I'm not a Human male, if that's what you're asking, I'm a Denobulan male, from the planet Denobula."

She nodded, seeming to consider what he had just said. "What about the one with the pointed ears. Is she a man?"

"T'Pol? She's a Vulcan female, from the planet Vulcan. She and I are the only aliens aboard Enterprise." It seemed he should make that point.

That seemed to be of great interest to the Aneukarian doctor. "I need her genome. And yours."

Phlox was taken aback by the request. Sharing their entire genetic make-up... He couldn't help thinking of Terra Prime and other nefarious groups. "I'm afraid that is classified information," he diverted. "Is there anything specifically you were looking for?"

"I am a geneticist by formation," X-Igofox did not miss a beat, "I like to study the chromosomal structure of other life forms."

Somehow Phlox had a feeling there was more to it than that but he projected the impression of being satisfied with her answer. "Of course. Well, I'm afraid I can't share the genomes but to give you an overall view, the structure is the same across most of the Federation worlds. You have a male chromosome and a female one and depending on the species, the combinations gives you either a male or female offspring. Perhaps we can talk more when you come back for that scan, hmmm?" His smile didn't reach his eyes.

As she left his office, Phlox scowled briefly. She didn't ask for the genome of the Humans. He wondered if it was because she already had it. He made a mental note to mention it to Captain Archer when he saw him.

xxx

**_Tarorat_**

Trip smiled at X-Urwjanx. At times the Aneukarian engineer seemed almost accepting of him, quite an improvement on the rest of them. It even felt like she forgot he was an alien, as in when they were adjusting the specs for the parts that the replicator was fabricating, or checking the fit of a hard-to-reach element of the drive. Soon enough, everything would be in place and they could start moving the entire Tarorat complement to Enterprise. Then he would be working with his team, and her team, in spacesuits for a good part of it. Spacesuit work was always dangerous. He would be relieved when their engine was repaired, they could start life-support systems again, and he could go back to his daily routine.

"You're not a woman?" X-Urwjanx asked as she handed him a duotronic inverter wrench.

Trip almost chocked on the answer. Granted all of the Aneukarians they'd be dealing with were women, but still. Unless they didn't have any men around? Awada's comment came back to him. He shook it out of his mind. No, that couldn't be. "Yes, ma'am, I'm not a woman. I'm a man," he drawled back. He put his hands on his hips, looking at her with amusement, waiting for what came next.

X-Urwjanx went silent, seeming to consider his response. "How many women do you have on Enterprise?"

He could understand the question. After all, the entire Tarorat complement was female. It must feel weird to find a ship that was manned by men also. "Currently, we have twenty-four women on board," he replied. He thought for a minute, but no, there had been no new female recruits at Coragis VI, "Yes, twenty-four." He stretched from where he had been bending over the equipment, freeing the tube. "Why d'you ask?"

"We don't have males on Aneukaria," the engineer answered.

It was Trip's turn to look at her in silence, "No males?" that seemed a little hard to believe.

The engineer shook her head. "No males. Aneukarians are self-sufficient. We don't need lower life forms to complete us."

'Lower life forms, eh' — Trip took a deep breath, tried to keep his tone jocular. "Well, on Earth, men aren't considered to be lower life forms. We're the equal of women. And vice versa. There's not one sex that's better than the other," he could feel his ears burning with anger.

X-Urwjanx was the picture of disapproval itself, "That's not our way."

'Well, swell,' he thought, 'you can stay on Aneukaria and we'll stay on Earth. And on Enterprise.' He didn't say it out loud, though. "Infinite diversity in infinite combinations," he finally muttered. That was a good reminder not to start pissing all over Aneukarian civilization.

"Uh?"

Ah, yes, of course, the Aneukarian wouldn't know the saying. Leave it up to the lower life form to tell her. "It's a Vulcan saying," he explained, "it means that there's all kind of ways that things can be." That should answer the question. "And that none of them are wrong," he added.

The Aneukarian didn't look like it was a philosophy she would consider adhering to. She turned to the manifold screen, "I don't want to share space with men."

Ah, that's what the issue was, Trip suddenly intuited. Of course. "You won't be sharing space with men," he explained. "Malcolm and T'Pol have been requisitioning a separate set of cabins just for you guys. You'll be three to a cabin, tight, very tight if you ask me, but all Aneukarians." He straightened up, making an effort to smile. "The only ones doubling up will be the crew of Enterprise."

"Doubling-up?"

"Yes, you know, instead of one person to a cabin, they'll bunk with someone else. If they're two to a cabin, there'll be a third." Of course the officers' quarters were off-limit, but she didn't need to know about that. "Enough people volunteered, it's easier that way."

X-Urwjanx stopped what she was doing, sniffed the air around him, "You too?"

Trip chuckled, "Oh not, not me. Officers... we have our separate quarters, you know." There was something about the way she looked at him in return that made him feel very strange. He trailed off, not sure what he'd said to offend her, but now seemed a good time to switch the subject. He paused, looked around at the engine room. "It's hard to believe there's only forty-two of you, the ship's much bigger than that. Perhaps you can give me a tour when we're done?"

That seemed to snap the engineer out of her momentary reverie. "Half of the ship is storage rooms," she explained, "the lower levels." She abruptly stopped herself, busied herself inspecting her tools.

"Storage rooms?" This didn't look like a merchant ship. Trip wondered what they must have in storage.

But X-Urwjanx was calling his attention to the photovoltaic reconfigurator. He picked up on her lead and they both went back to dealing with engine stuff.

xxx

_**Enterprise**_

"Think about it, tomorrow at this time you'll be back on your ship, ready to take off!" Archer raised his glass in a toast, followed by his dinner companions. T'Pol accented his toast with an eyebrow. X-Eliantix and X-Aljikax followed suit with their drinks. Overall, Archer was pleased with the state of affairs. The Aneukarian captain and her first officer had grown somewhat used to him over the past few days, they no longer seemed to cringe whenever he talked. He still felt they were somewhat uncomfortable around him.

And his chief engineer was hardly around, shuttling back and forth between Enterprise and the Tarorat. But now everything was ready, the preparations for the refit had already started, the Tarorat support systems had been taken off-line a day ago. The engineering teams would be refitting the engines overnight, then a brief test to make sure everything worked as planned and they'd come back to Enterprise, leaving the Tarorat empty of all occupants while the engines cycled through launch, spewing radiation and pollutants all over the ship. The life-support systems would patiently filter and clean the air, and then the Aneukarians would be back on the Tarorat and off to wherever it was they planned to go.

Another day and they would be back on their ship. The hosting of the Aneukarian crew had gone remarkably smoothly, the aliens came over in three of their shuttles, not complaining about being packed like sardines in there or about having to sleep three to a room. Or about anything. And they'd scarcely be seen around the ship, spending their entire time in their quarters, going through the ship databases, per Reed's reports. Of course, Reed was keeping a precise log of what they accessed and when, and of any attempts to enter the restricted areas of the central computer. But the aliens had been behaving.

Somehow, he felt they had learned a lot more about Humans than the Humans had learned about Aneukarians. But that was because Enterprise was the one doing the hosting. At least they had a good idea where Aneukaria lay, if not exact coordinates.

Every last female crew member had been engaging the aliens when they were around, getting pieces of information here and there. When they were gone, they'd pull all the pieces together and establish a brief profile of Aneukarian society, to be completed by some future ethnologist group. In the meantime, he owed it to his science teams to go back to where they were before and pick up on cataloguing the rogue stars.

xxx

_**Tarorat**_

"We're ready, Captain," Trip's voice resonated over the intercom.

"Good job," Archer's voice came over more faintly, "good luck and we'll see you back on Enterprise."

Trip shut off the connection, turned to the five space suits around him, noticing once again that the Aneukarians were taller than they were. Stronger, too, as he'd discovered when they had to re-insert the trilithium oxidizer range. That thing must weight upwards of fifty pounds, and X-Urwjanx had grabbed it with one hand, lifting it easily. Even T'Pol was not as strong.

Awada and McBreen had been left speechless. Trip had commented on it, and X-Urwjanx had looked at him as if there was something wrong with his question, that lifting fifty pounds with a hand was the norm. That's when he realized they really didn't know much about the Aneukarians.

It was a good thing Reed was keeping track of the aliens on Enterprise. He'd made a note to let Reed and Jon know about how strong they were, but hadn't had the time. Actually, he probably should have let them know already. He'd do it as soon as he went back on board Enterprise.

McBreen was asking him a question about the condenser controls, they were not aligning properly, and he went to check, forgetting about other considerations.

xxx

_**Enterprise**_

"So that's how many there are?" X-Eliantix asked.

"Yes, Captain," X-Psilex and X-Urwjanx responded as one. X-Eliantix nodded her approval. She addressed X-Igofox, "What about compatibility?"

The healer nodded vigorously, "Based on the information the doctor provided, all of them are compatible. There are a few deviants, though. How do you propose to handle those?"

X-Aljikax snorted, as X-Igofox knew she would. She didn't let it bother her. The ban on deviants was purely cultural, there was nothing different with them physiologically. But she knew she wouldn't ever convince her otherwise, and X-Aljikax had the captain's ear to boot. The better approach was to take everyone with them. Perhaps she could convince the Aneukarian government to use the deviants as well. She hated waste.

X-Eliantix was still silent, seemed to be thinking. X-Igofox realized she may not want to oppose her second directly. She herself didn't think these pairings worked, of having a ship's captain automatically serve with her lover. There were too many conflicts. But it wasn't her place to comment. "It might be easier to grab everyone than try sorting it out while we're on the alien ship," she provided a way out.

X-Eliantix gladly took it, "Yes, that's the best approach." She turned to X-Urwjanx before X-Aljifax could comment, "And the storage areas are ready?"

The engineer nodded, "Everything's in place."

"— Captain," Aljikax interrupted, "We can't use the deviants." X-Igofox looked at her askance but didn't say anything.

"X-Urwjanx, we'll have to keep them separately," X-Eliantix agreed. It was starting to look like success was near. Yes, the engines had failed, but they'd end up with the hoped for cargo and they wouldn't have to spend more time in space.

"We're ready, Captain," X-Psilex whispered in the darkened room, "We've reassembled it." Even if the aliens were listening, they wouldn't know what she was referring to.

"You have the supplies?" X-Eliantix asked X-Igofox.

The healer puffed up her hair, parting it in the middle to reveal a small canister made of inert material. She handed it to X-Urwjanx. "Here, I checked the dosage against their vital statistics. We'll have plenty of time."

"How will we prevent them from following our trace?" X-Smalix asked. She knew how much radiation newly-installed engines could give.

X-Aljikax straightened with pleasure, "I have the answer. Here's what we'll do." The Anakeurians crew crowded around her as she explained how it was going to go down.


	3. Linnaeus - Act II

xxx

_**Enterprise**_

Archer groaned, bringing a hand to his head. He couldn't remember what happened the night before but all he knew was that he should have known better. He rolled over on his back, staring at the ceiling over his head. He must have blacked out. He hadn't drank that much at dinner, had he? All he could remember was having some wine, then... He was fuzzy on the 'then'. No, come to think of it, he hadn't overindulged. There was no reason and no opportunity. It must be something he ate.

He looked over where Porthos usually slept, the beagle was still asleep, his flanks gently rising every time he inhaled. Archer settled back into his pillow, ready to go on with the night. And sat bold upright in his bed. He wasn't tired. What time was it exactly? A quick glance showed the time to be 0557. That woke him up fully. He needed to get up and get going, today was the day the Aneukarians went back to the Tarorat.

He got up, yawning. He still had an hour before the official shift. He'd be able to get ready and even have breakfast too.

* * *

Trip woke up, feeling he'd had a full night sleep. T'Pol was already up, her side of the bed empty. He mechanically checked the meditation corner but she was not meditating. She must be in the bathroom, getting ready. He would gladly have gone back to sleep but he felt refreshed. A quick glance at the chronometer showed the time to be 0611.

He might as well get up. He swung his legs to the side of the bed, stretching and yawning, keeping an eye on the door to the bathroom. After a couple of minutes, he walked over. The door swooshed open but nobody was inside. T'Pol couldn't have already gone to the bridge, it was too early. Unless somehow she was paged because the Aneukarians were leaving today. But that wouldn't have happened without him. Plus he would've heard a page during the night, he never slept that soundly.

He figured she must have gotten up early. He would catch her up in the mess hall or on the bridge. He stepped into the shower. It was still dry. He chuckled, she must really have gotten up early.

Thirty minutes later he was in the mess hall, which seemed emptier than usual. T'Pol was not there. Trip nodded to several of the Engineering crew, they'd all soon be watching the Aneukarian ship sail out at sunrise, in a manner of speaking. It would be a good feeling to see the result of all their hard work pay off.

Trip ate faster than usual. The Aneukarian ship must be ready by now. T'Pol must already be on the bridge. As he left the mess hall he almost ran into Malcolm, who was walking in, looking around as if he was looking for someone he knew.

* * *

Archer was already in the captain's chair, drinking from a steaming mug of coffee, when Trip walked in. Trip noted that the science console was empty, which was slightly surprising. Hoshi wasn't there either. It struck him that the two of them must have gone to the gym together. Of course.

Archer looked up at Trip, "T'Pol with you?"

"Nah, she got up way early," Trip shrugged, "I didn't see her in the mess hall, she must be at the gym." He smiled to himself, thinking how put off she'd be if she ended up being late for her shift. He could imagine she must be rushing to get ready right now.

"I'm going to check the latest readings on the Aneukarian ship," he told Archer, "Once we confirm the radiation's off, the Aneukarians can be on their way."

They both looked up as Malcolm entered the brige at a fast pace. He slowed down, looking around. "Lieutenant Reed," Archer greeted him.

"Ah, huh, Captain," the Englishman didn't answer with his usual crispness, "I was looking for...," he stopped, realizing nobody'd asked him. He was looking over towards the helm. His hair was still wet. Behind him Travis entered and took his place at the helm.

Reed went to his console, looking pointedly over at Trip. The engineer sidled over matter-of-factly. "Something's the matter?" he whispered.

Malcolm looked at the Captain, making sure he was otherwise engaged. "Have you seen Hoshi?" he whispered back.

Trip was amused. Malcolm and Hoshi took such pains to hide their relationship. He wasn't sure why, Archer had been fairly accepting when he and T'Pol had told him they were together. But then, the fact that she was a Vulcan and somewhat outside of the carefully-drawn Starfleet lines helped somewhat. "Nah," he replied, "I figure she hit the gym with T'Pol."

"But she's not at the gym," Reed whispered back, "I just went there."

That got Trip's attention. He stared at him silently. If T'Pol was not in the mess hall and not at the gym... perhaps there was something wrong with her. Maybe she went to Sickbay? He needed to go check on her.

"Captain, may I—" he was interrupted by Travis suddenly exclaiming, "The Aneukarian ship! It's gone!"

"What?!" Archer was already up, caught his coffee cup before it hit the floor.

Reed looked up from his console, "There's no alien ship within sensor range! None docked either!" he exclaimed.

"What's going on?!" Archer exclaimed. He turned to Trip, "I thought the engines wouldn't be ready until morning?"

"The radiation must have gone down during the night," Trip went to his console, checked the night's readings. "Radiation readings were almost nil around 0200," he read, "and then they stopped completely...," he looked up again, "at 0320. Hess may know." He leaned over the intercom, "Trip to Engineering, reply."

"Engineering here," a voice answered. Trip frowned. That was not Hess.

"Where's Lieutenant Hess?" he asked.

"I don't know, sir, I haven't seen her this morning."

Trip frowned further. He'd never known her not to be on shift, not unless she'd been celebrating with her crew the night before. And there'd be no cause for celebration, they'd all been pulling all stops to fix the Aneukarian engines. In fact, she was at her station when he retired for the night. "Who else was on the night shift?"

"Beausang, sir, but I haven't seen her either."

Archer had come over to Trip's console and was hovering, scowling. The Aneukarians had left in the middle of the night, without even a good-bye? Perhaps it was culturally acceptable for them, but it was downright rude. Rude and suspicious. He looked over at Reed, "Take a couple of security men and go check their quarters."

Reed swiftly exited. Archer turned to the junior at the sensor station but she wasn't there yet. He looked around the bridge. "Can anyone tell me if we have a trace on the Aneukarian ship?" he growled.

An ensign quickly stepped over to the sensor station, sat down and fiddled with the controls, "It's been too long, sir," he finally answered, "we'll need the science teams." He glanced over at the science console, prudently refrained from saying more.

Archer's frown deepened. T'Pol still wasn't there. He was interrupted by the beep of the chair's intercom. "Bridge here," he opened the line.

"Captain," Dr. Phlox's voice rose over the bridge, "I just woke up." Archer threw a glance at Trip. What now? The Denobulan doctor was quickly going on, "I hibernated recently, I shouldn't have slept. This is highly unusual. So I did a self-examination and I found traces of an external agent in my blood. A powerful sedative. I want to check other crew members," the doctor sounded peeved, "once I find Ensign Cutler."

"Ensign Cutler?"

"She wasn't in her quart— at her post this morning," Phlox quickly corrected. It was a matter of some debate as to how much Captain Archer knew about the going ons between various crew members, and he saw no reason to enlighten him.

"Is T'Pol in Sickbay?" Trip cut in over the intercom. Perhaps she was also affected by the sedative.

"I haven't seen her. Why, is she also missing?"

"Also missing?!" Archer looked in surprise at Trip, who could only stare back at him nonplussed.

"I've already had half-a-dozen crew members through here looking for missing crew members — Ortiz, Gordon, Beausang, Akhoun, and Cutler, of course, now you're telling me T'Pol —

"Hold on," Archer interrupted, looking around the bridge, "have you seen Hoshi or Vik?"

"They're missing too?" Phlox replied.

Trip was already on his way to the science station. "Computer, he asked, "please provide the location of..." he hesitated, looked at Archer then at Hoshi's empty chair, "Ensign Sato."

"Ensign Sato is not aboard Enterprise," the metallic voice of the computer replied.

Good thing Reed had left the bridge. Trip straightened, looking over at Archer with a puzzled expression that was reflected on the Captain's face. 'What does it mean, she's not on Enterprise?" Archer asked. Trip could see he was as flabbergasted as he was.

He turned back to the science console. He didn't want to ask the next question, he somehow already knew the answer. But he had to. "Computer, please provide the location of Commander T'Pol."

"Commander T'Pol is not aboard Enterprise." Trip inhaled reflexively, his chest tightening, feeling a sense of disorientation sweep through him. That couldn't be! How could it be? She was with him last night when they went to bed. Did someone take her? Who could have taken her? The aliens? He balled his fists, wanting to strike at someone, something, starting with the science console.

Archer's chair beeped again. "Captain!" it was Malcolm. "The Aneukarians! They're gone. They've left a private message for you. Encrypted."

"On my way! Trip, you're with me!' He was already running to the turbolift.

* * *

Reed and two security men were waiting by the computer inside the Aneukarian guest quarters. They briskly stepped aside when Archer came in, Trip on his heels. The three officers watched as Archer entered his code and X-Eliantix and X-Aljikax materialized on the screen. The video was short, too short, leaving the men mute in bewilderment.

Trip was the first one to talk, "They took all the women?" he said in a whisper. Why would they do that?

"They said they're liberating them from us..." Archer repeated what he'd heard, as shell-shocked as the other two.

"But why from us?" Trip's mind was grasping at straws.

That broke the spell. Archer's eyes narrowed with fury. He turned to Reed, "How did that happen?! I thought you were keeping an eye on them!"

"We were!" Reed swallowed nervously, "We checked them for weapons when they came on board! I don't know how they did it." If he hadn't been bred to obey authority, he'd have pointed out none of this would have happened if a certain Captain had not invited a whole gaggle of aliens on board Enterprise without knowing anything about them or their proclivities.

"Phlox talked about an external agent," Trip interjected.

Malcolm shot him a grateful look. Archer was already halfway-out the door, converting his anger into action. They fell into a run behind him.

* * *

"Hmm, hmmm..." Phlox was checking them over with the mediscanner, "traces indeed... Captain, Commander Tucker — how did you sleep last night?"

Archer was surprised at the question. "Well, very well. Actually, I thought I overdid it, it was such a heavy sleep. Perhaps you can tell us why you're asking?" Archer was not in the mood to play games.

"Well, I told you there were traces of an external agent in my blood ," Phlox checked his mediscanner. "You show signs of the same compound, Zupixylonium, a most potent but completely odorless sedative. Very similar to one we've encountered it before, remember those aliens who were obsessed with gold? It's a slightly different chemical composition," Phlox added, "not that compatible with Vulcan or Denobulan physiology. Fortunately, I have the antidote." The doctor waved a hypo at the three officers.

"And you're ok now?" Archer asked.

"Perfectly fine," the doctor replied. "The compound is very well tolerated by Human physiology, the only effect is that they wake up refreshed from a long sleep," he added.

"What about T'Pol?" Trip butted in, "Will she be ok? Even without the antidote?"

Phlox considered for a while. "Barring an allergic reaction to the compound, she should be," he offered, "There will be a sizable headache but I expect it will eventually resolve itself."

That didn't make Trip very comfortable. "How long?!"

"No more than a few hours," Phlox replied.

"We'll have caught up to them by then!" Archer exclaimed. He turned to Trip, "You've worked with T'Pol before, you can recalibrate the sensors to find the Aneukarian ship's traces. Requisition anyone you need from the science team. We need to find that ship. And Reed, work with him, Trip will also be needed in Engineering." It dawned on him that they were going to be hobbled by the absence of their Science Officer.

"Aye, aye," Captain, the two men answered in unison.

Archer turned back to Phlox, "Make a list of every female crew member that's missing, anything we need to know about them, medical health, everything!" He couldn't help reflect that was something that his First Officer would have done, if she hadn't been abducted by the Aneukarians.

* * *

Archer looked over the sixty-plus men assembled in the Shuttle Bay. Word had spread like wildfire and Phlox had confirmed it. The twenty-four female crew members were no longer on board.

The sixty-two men looked small in the vastness of the shuttle bay. The men facing him were somber, some seemed angry. All were tense with anticipation. There was a low murmur as the men looked around, double-checking for themselves that there were no women in the room, exclaiming in low whispers. Archer acknowledged Dr. Phlox with a nod. There was a line open to the bridge for Travis and the skeleton crew.

They still had no answer. Phlox was going through everything he could find on the Aneukarians and needed Reed to complete his findings with the monitoring tapes, Trip was recalibrating the sensors with the science team and needed Reed to pitch in while he covered Engineering, Reed was combing the aliens'quarters with a fine-tooth comb and needed Hoshi to translate the tapes. T'Pol would have helped Phlox while she recalibrated the sensors, Hess would have covered Engineering while Trip helped T'Pol... Everywhere, they were hurt by the absence of their crew members. With or without knowing it the Aneukarians had struck a massive blow.

But Enterprise wouldn't go down. At that moment, all he knew was that aliens had left with part of his crew and he would get them back, come hell or high water.

He looked over the assembly. "As you know, our guests, the Aneukarians," he pretty much spat the word, "have abducted all the female crew members aboard Enterprise." He let the information sink in. Now that the Captain had confirmed it, they all would believe it. He raised a hand to quell the noise that erupted in reaction to the announcement. "We do not know why." That point about being liberated made no sense to him and Archer wasn't going to bring it up. "All I can say is that no matter what, we're going to get them back!" Vigorous nods welcomed the assertion. "It's going to be challenging, we're going to be short-staffed, but I know all of you will gladly sacrifice your personal comfort to see our crewmates back on Enterprise, back home. They're our friends, our family. We'll do whatever it takes but we'll get them back — and we will get them back!" A couple of 'yeah's' punctuated that last tirade. "In the absence of our First Officer, Lieutenant Reed will cover ship's operations. Consult with him for your new schedule." Archer took a step back, signaling the end of the assembly.

He turned to Trip. "I want to hit warp five the second we know which way to go!"

"Aye, Captain!" Trip hurried out to Engineering. They stilll hadnt finished recalibrating the sensors, god, how he wished T'Pol was there, he would never again give her a hard time about the sciences. In any case, there wasn't much he could do anymore, he'd fed the teams his knowledge and experience, now they needed to figure out the scientific formulas to trace the Tarorat's emissions. Then he could helpd reprogram the sensors and they could lay in a course in pursuit. The discharge from the newly installed engines was massive, they would have no trouble following it.

Ingrained military discipline was no match to the emotions roiling the room. People were grouping in two's and three's even as they lined up in front of Reed, feeding off each other's indignation. "We'll get them back!" several shouted as they streamed past Archer. He nodded in response. Yes, they would.

Finally only Phlox remained in the shuttle bay. Archer turned to him, "What do you think?"

The doctor bounced a couple of time on the balls of his feet. "I would keep an eye out on rising levels of aggression," he finally said. "This presents a complicated psychological picture. The men are upset, they will be dealing with feelings of failure, they failed to protect their fellow crew members, they'll be afraid for them, of failing to recover them, all of these emotions will be more easily expressed as anger. The presence of women would help defuse the aggressiveness, so we have somewhat of a catch-twenty-two situation."

"Your job is to ensure the crew's physical and emotional well-being," Archer bit back.

"Including that of the Captain," Phlox remarked pointedly, though his smile took some of the sting out of his words.

"I'll be fine," Archer snapped, then noticed Phlox's more pronounced smile, realized he himself was being combative. "Well, keep an eye out on things," he finally said.

"What about Starfleet?" Phlox asked. If Archer didn't let Starfleet know, it would be a sign he was feeling personally responsible for the disappearance of the women, that he was trying to fix it on his own, without letting his superiors know. That would be troublesome indeed.

"I've alerted Starfleet." Archer replied distractedly. "They're trying to find anything they can on Aneukaria." Phlox nodded in approval.

The intercom beeped and Archer went to toggle it. "Captain!" That was the voice of desperation. "Trip?" Archer slapped the wall with the flat of his hand. He already knew this wasn't going to be good. "Lay it on, Trip!"

"Captain! The engines! They took the dilithium converter!" Archer wasn't sure what that was but knew that Trip would tell him. "Thank god you told me to be ready at a moment's notice. If we'd gone to warp straight away, the whole ship would've blown up!" Archer closed his eyes. Of course. The Aneukarians would want to get rid of the threat they presented.

He balled his fists. The Aneukarians had taken his crew and threatened his ship. This was war.

He turned back to Phlox. "When we were at dinner the first day they came over and they were talking to T'Pol, they mentioned which galaxy their world was in. Get Reed and go through the First Officer's tapes of that day." If nothing else, he knew she would have left a detailed record of the conversation. "Figure out which galaxy, tell Travis to lay in a course." No more waiting for the Tarorat's signature. Chances were both ships would take pretty similar courses, especially in the beginning. They'd adjust once they found the signature.

He went back to the intercom, "Trip! The dilithium converter! How long?"

"We have two of them, for harmonization convergence. I can take the other and put it through the replicator, but it'll take a couple of days." Trip explained. "The long pole in the tent is the replication. I can save half-a-day on the secondary chute install with a couple of extra pairs of hands. But that's all."

"We don't have a couple of days! You have one hour for the install. Find a way to do it!" Archer barked back. Let Phlox worry that he was too aggressive. He needed his ship back and he needed to get on the Tarorat's tail. "Get volunteers, get anybody you can, but we need this stat!"

xxx

* * *

_**Notes from the author**_

_So, now you know, the main difference between the two stories is that in Apoidea, all the men are taken, and in Linnaeus, all the women are taken. _

_Outside of this core variation, I tried / am trying to highlight the differences in reactions between the remaining men and women, between T'Pol, always careful approach, and Archer, ready to jump in. _

_At this point, it looks like Linnaeus will be a shorter story, but then Apoidea ended up being three chapters longer than I thought, so what do I know..._

_And another reveal, Apoidea is the classification for bees, Linnaeus for birds. So these are essentially stories about the birds and the bees. As for the alien names, notice that they are all X-X. Two X's... Having fun with this. One of the Aneukarian names is (D)ominatrix spelled backwards, another is (J)oanofarc. Oh, and I understand that eukaryotic is sexual reproduction, (an) being the privative root. Now, I'm not a biology major and I've done enough research to know it's no that simple, some eukaryotic cells reproduce asexually etc, but bear with me on this. I like the word Aneukarian and it stuck. I'm spilling the beans here... lol_

_I am traveling for the next three weeks, may not be able to post during that time. _

_Let me know what you think._


	4. Linnaeus - Act III

T'Pol awakes from a dreamless sleep, feeling cold. She opens her eyes on surroundings that are both unfamiliar and uncomfortable. She tries pushing herself up but she can't move, her wrists are shackled to the wall behind her. She has no memory of falling asleep. Obviously she's been drugged. A concussive headache is starting to nestle behind her eyes. She shivers, unable to rub her arms.

She's still in her unisuit, she shouldn't be shivering. Unless there is a metabolic issue. The migraine keeps intensifying, pointing to a metabolism issue. Cymbals are ringing in her head in tempo with her heartbeat. The noise is nausea-inducing. She looks around the room through eyes narrowed to avoid the glare of the lights, trying to get her bearings.

There are other Enterprise crew members with her, another eight. She sees Hoshi Sato, Elizabeth Cutler, Dewika Kalmari, Mildred Quinones, Melody Kettle, Nancy Gordon, Lori Vik, And Florence Beausang. She knows their bio card by heart. There's is no pride in that, a Vulcan remembers everything relating to their work, and she's the First Officer of Enterprise.

Still, there is nothing in their collective information that would explain why they are all here in this room. Hoshi and Cutler are asleep on each side of her. She can reach them if she stretches the chain to its full length.

She starts with Ensign Sato. Hoshi stirs when she calls her name, but does not wake. T'Pol steels herself before reaching out to touch her, making sure she won't chance on stray thoughts or feelings the sleeping Human is harboring. She is limited to a gentle prodding of the fingers by the chain length but finally Hoshi seems to wake up a little, opening unfocused eyes.

She stares dreamily at T'Pol then laughs, a sound as incongruous as it is unexplainable. "Sorry, I thought my brother told you," she tells a perplexed T'Pol before falling back asleep.

T'Pol blinks. The pressure behind her eyes is relentless, she tries to push it away as she reaches out again. This time she is more successful, though Hoshi's first reaction seems to be frustration that her sleep is being disrupted. The ensign tries to push her away, cannot complete the gesture, realizes she is restrained, and wakes up fully in the following second.

"What?!" She sits up on the bench, blinking at T'Pol, looking around the room, unable to make sense of what she sees.

"It seems we have been abducted," T'Pol explains. She would usually expound but the sledgehammer in her skull makes it difficult. "Are you feeling all right, Ensign?" she simply asks.

"Yes, I'm fine" Hoshi answers mechanically, still trying to process the situation.

So the headache T'Pol is struggling with is a personal matter. "What do you remember from last night?" T'Pol continues. Perhaps there will be clues there.

Hoshi blushes slightly, "Malc - Huh, I mean Lieutenant Reed and I were talking, and then I woke up. I must have slept really soundly, I didn't hear him .. We had a training session..." Her voice trails off as she becomes aware of the baldness of her lie. She stops, nervously biting her lip.

T'Pol looks at the Ensign, waiting. It is a well-known fact that she has a relationship with Lieutenant Reed. They smell like each other when they come on the bridge in the morning.

Hoshi realizes she's actually acknowledging the existence of her relationship with Malcolm when they've taken such pains to keep it under wraps. But then these are not usual times. "Oh, crap!" she exclaims, letting go, "he was spending the night with me. The thing is, I don't remember falling asleep. Actually we were just talking, I'm still in my uniform!"

T'Pol nods, "I had a similar experience. I currently have a headache. All appearances point to the fact we were drugged very quickly. There is a high probability the parties responsible used the ventilation system."

Hoshi shoots her a glance - 'high probability'? This must be the first time the Vulcan hasnt computed the odds to the fourth decimal point. She looks over at the sleeping Cutler, the other women. Now why were they taken and not others? The room is large enough to house three times their number.

The hammering in T'Pol's head makes it impossible to focus. She blinks again, looks at Hoshi. "I need to initiate a light healing trance. Please let the others know about the situation when they awake. At this time, we do not know who has taken us or why, though all indications point to the Aneukarians." The probability some other alien life form abducted them is close to nil, but it exists.

Hoshi starts waiting. T'Pol mentioned the needed healing trance was light, she will recover from whatever is flushing her skin green. In any case, her superior officer didn't ask for her accord, she just told her what was up and proceeded accordingly. Hopefully T'Pol will get better quickly.

It's always a struggle for Hoshi to deal with the unexpected. She mentally goes through all the other times when she's faced adverse situations. Fortunately, it's not her first time down that rabbit hole, she was abducted by the Xindi. But this time she's not alone. There are six other crew members with her. She soon finds her inner resolve.

xxx

It is several hours before T'Pol emerges from her healing trance. At least Hoshi thinks it's been several hours. It certainly feels like it. The others have all awakened, to have her tell them they are prisoners on some alien ship hurtling to some unknown system.

Not that she likes being the one having to tell them.

Of all the times for T'Pol to have a headache... But she knows how they're going to feel, is able to find the words that help. After the shock recedes, they spend the time talking about everything kand nothing, shoring each other up. Anything to ward off the cold anxiety that is coiling and uncoiling inside them.

T'Pol eyes snap open and Hoshi's heart skips a beat. Why can't Vulcans emerge from sleep gradually, so she could be prepared? "Someone is coming," T'Pol says.

Hoshi looks at her through narrowed eyes. Can she actually hear it? How long has the Vulcan been awake, really? Has she been listening to their banter?

Four people enter the room. All Aneukarians. Hoshi knew it! She recognizes the captain of the Tarorat, X-Eliantix. And X-Aljikax. The other two are guards.

T'Pol eyes them coldly. "I demand you release us and return us to our ship."

X-Aljikax is furious. The nerve of that alien, making demands. And a deviant, no less. "Silence, dog!" she barks, threatening her with the thin metal rod in her hands.

T'Pol eyes her without expression. It is illogical to call anyone or anything by other than its proper name. It would be just as illogical to despise the Aneukarian for being illogical.

But X-Eliantix shrugs it off, "I cannot release you or the others."

"Others? There are others?" T'Pol asks.

"You're not the ones we wanted but we couldn't tell you apart," X-Eliantix explains.

"You think we'd spend time and energy to save deviants?" X-Aljikax adds, eyeing her with contempt.

"Deviants? Save them from what?" T'Pol is trying to make sense of the information.

"Save them from the men," X-Eliantix provides matter-of-factly.

"Not something you'd know about," X-Aljikax sneers.

That does little to shed light on the situation. T'Pol goes back to her first question. "Who are the others? I demand you release all of us."

That infuriates X-Aljikax. That was a possible expected outcome. What was not expected was her reaction. "You do not make demands!" she snarls then strikes T'Pol with the thin rod.

A stream of blue lightning shoots out of the device and envelops T'Pol in a web of sizzling energy. She screams and falls against the bench, her limbs jerking uncontrollably. The women watch in mute horror as she convulses with pain, the blue light flickering away slowly.

X-Eliantix thins her lips. X-Aljikax is always too quick to anger. She turns to her "When she recovers, have her brought to my quarters." She leaves.

X-Aljika smiles, "That will be my pleasure," she purrs. She walks over to T'Pol, lifts her with one hand. The Vulcan is limp, her head lolling as she tries to regain control of her limbs, which are still twitching sporadically as the discharge travels out of her system. X-Aljikax drops her back on the bench. "Take her," she orders the two guards. They unshackle her and drag her towards the door.

As they get to the door, the women see T'Pol get to her feet, stumbling and unsecure, held upright by the firm grip of the guards.

xxx

It feels like being plunged in a vat of liquid fire, every nerve ending curling in agonizing pain. The pain is gone in a few seconds but the shock leaves her hardly able to breathe. She feels alien hands roughly free her from the wall, then she is brought upright. She still cannot move her legs, her jaw is clenched in a painful cramp. After a few seconds her body stars responding again.

The walk down long corridors helps shake off any remaining stiffness. T'pol almost falls as X-Aljikax roughly shoves her into the room but catches herself. She throws a cold look back at the Aneukarian. It is not illogical to harbor resentment towards a tormentor. And Vulcans never forget.

"Sit her down," X-Eliantix orders.

X-Aljikax slams her into a contraption that looks like a chair then cuffs her to the leg of the table in front of her.

"You can leave now," X-Eliantix tells X-Aljikax, "I want to interrogate her myself."

"But, Captain," the other woman protests. "You can't be alone with an alien!"

"An alien you've made sure is fully neutralized," X-Eliantix retorts. "I'll call you when it's time to bring her back."

X-Aljikax leaves the room reluctantly and noisily. When they are alone X-Eliantix sits across form T'Pol. "I apologize for my second in command, she's quick-to anger."

T'Pol nods. Her ears are still ringing from the neural discharge. "Who are the others?" she asks again, picking up where she left off.

X-Eliantix is surprised. She thought the alien had understood, "The ones like us," she responds.

"The women?"

"Yes,"

"You took all of the women?" T'Pol methodically pursues her inquiry.

"We couldn't tell you apart," X-Eliantix explains again.

"Tell us apart? What is different with us?"

"You are deviants."

Again, that odd label of deviant. Yet they're all women. All taken by the Aneukarians to be saved from the men. T'Pol suddenly intuits that the common element may be their relationship with men — Ensign Sato with Lieutenant Reed, Ensign Cutler with Dr. Phlox, herself with Trip. She doesnt know about the other six women but she would expect Ensign Sato to confirm they are in relationships. She notices that Corporal Cole is not included, which seems to indicate the relationship has to be current. She was not aware of any trouble between Ensign Mayweather and the corporal.

She focuses back on the Aneukarian. "Deviants consort with men?" she asks for confirmation.

"Yes!" X-Eliantix is relieved. So the alien does understand. It will make things easier.

"Why did you abduct us? What are you planning to do with us?" That is the key question.

"We need genetic material," she pauses slightly, "not from the deviants, from the others."

"Genetic material?"

X-Eliantix hesitates. The one in front of her is a deviant, doesn't deserve the information. On the other hand, she's an officer on the Human ship and that's the reason for their conversation.

She explains. "Fifty year ago, a comet passed through Aneukaria's atmosphere, spewing radiation throughout our atmosphere. Our DNA was affected, so much so that most of our offspring die in infancy. Our entire species is condemned unless we find alternative sources of genetic material. The Tarorat was launched to that efffect." She stops there. There's no need to say more.

"And the women are an alternative source of DNA," T'Pol finishes for her. "You did not take them to save them from the men," she points out.

"They will realize they are free from the men. That's a benefit to them," X-Eliantix replies. "We are not monsters," she adds. T'Pol privately reflects that is a matter of opinion.

"The relationship between men and women is not adversarial," T'Pol tries to correct the misunderstanding, "women do not need to be saved from the men. Or to be freed from them."

"We studied your history from the ship's database," X-Eliantix counters, "men have been subjugating those like us for millenia!"

"Women serve on Enterprise freely," T'Pol tries again, "men and women work together, collaborate openly, may have relationships." She looks for a reductive way to debunk the Aneukarian's misperception. "Vulcan's history is different. Do you presume I too need to be saved from men?" Confronted with X-Eliantix's silence, she goes on. "The crew is like a clan, a family. You separated family members. The abduction of the women is a crime under Federation laws. You must release all of us."

X-Eliantix shakes her head. "Even if I believed you, we need the genetic material."

"And if we provide genetic material, you will release us?" The question has been in T'Pol's mind for a while.

X-Eliantix shakes her head again, "You're a deviant. We cannot use your genetic material, it has been polluted."

The logical next step is obvious. "Since you cannot use our genetic material, you are free to release the deviants." Not that T'Pol expects it will be that simple.

X-Eliantix is embarrassed. She wishes she didn't have to explain quite so clearly. "Your DNA is polluted. We cannot allow the contamination of others."

It sounds ominous. Two eyebrows stand at attention. "Our DNA is polluted ... because of our relationships with men?" Scientific curiosity is the strongest. "How can involvement in a relationship with a male of the species compromise one's DNA?"

"I will call our doctor, X-Igofox. She can explain more fully."

xxx

A few minutes later X-Igofox enters the room and X-Eliantix gets up in greeting. T'Pol doesn't move, she's still shackled to the table leg. She's refused the glass of water offered by X-Eliantix, even though the captain is unaware of the cultural meaning of the refusal on Vulcan and one could claim her refusal was illogical. She watches X-Igofox carefully, instructed by recent experience to be wary.

In a few words X-Eliantix catches X-Igofox up on the conversation. The doctor nods, turns to T'Pol, "From what we could find in your databases, Aneukarians developed along a different evolutionary path. We used to have differentiated genders as well but the males were subsumed into the females, and only remain as vestigial genetic material. Aneukarian reproduction uses that genetic material as an endless reserve of recombination." She pauses. "At least it was endless until about fifty years ago."

An eyebrow raises in comprehension, "You reproduce asexually..."

X-Igofox nods in return, "Exactly. Every Aneukarian carries a reservoir of genetic material from a male. When we want to reproduce, one of our ovule splits in two and is recombined randomly with the reserve material to create a new individual. The reserve material is the one that was poisoned by radiation from the comet."

"In that case wouldn't it be preferable to use genetic material from the males?" T'Pol has no qualms offering the advice, the men are far away on Enterprise.

X-Igofox sighs. "Using men would pollute the reservoir with unfiltered genetic material." She looks down at the table, up at T'Pol, "Because of our biology, consorting with men does the same. The genetic material of deviants is tainted and cannot be used."

"But our biology is not the same," T'Pol points out. If the deviants' material cannot be used the Aneukarians have no reason to keep them around.

X-Igofox looks at her appraisingly. She's sorry the alien is a deviant. "It will be impossible to convince our people otherwise. There are those among us who consider that even Aneukarian deviants can be used, but conservatives like X-Aljikax will never allow that to happen."

X-Eliantix nods in turn, "We are forbidden to use deviant genetic material, by law and custom."

T'Pol has a long experience watching Captain Archer extoll the benefits of the Federation to newly encountered alien species. "Why don't you work with the Federation to find a solution? There are many worlds in the Federation, and many scientists. The Interspecies Medical Exchange could help your scientists find a solution and provide you with the genetic material you need."

X-Eliantix shakes her head. "Aneukaria is running out of time." She pauses. "I cannot gamble the future of my world on the word of aliens."

X-Igofox agrees, "The only hope for our civilization is to quickly extract and graft healthy root DNA. Your species is compatible. Your genome is different than ours but our geneticists have an expertise few other civilizations possess_._"

"What will happen to the women after you extract the genetic material? And to the deviants?"

X-Eliantix and X-Igofox exchange a glance. X-Eliantix stares straight at T'Pol, "The deviants will be disposed of in a purification ceremony on Aneukaria. Or they could be disposed of before. It depends how collaborative the women are."

X-Igofox adds, "I need to run preliminary tests on the others to minimize prep time when we get to Aneukaria."

"They must comply," X-Eliantix goes on. "You are their officer and they obey you. You will tell them to cooperate or the other deviants will be disposed of early."

T'Pol understands the terms of the blackmail. "They will comply so long as the deviants are well treated," she replies.

X-Eliantix scoffs. "You're not in a position to impose conditions. X-Aljikax is in charge of the deviants. The purification ceremony is important to her. I'm sure she'll keep you alive until we get to Aneukaria. That's all I can give you."

Given the disposition of X-Eliantix's second in command, T'Pol cannot help but think this isn't much. "What happens to the others after you extract the genetic material?" she asks again.

X-Eliantix blinks with pleasure. "The providers will be well taken care of. They will be honored and respected, to spend their lives in pleasant harmony. And they will have been saved from the men."

"But not you or the other deviants," X-Igofox reminds her.

As if that was necessary.

xxx

"So what will happen to us?" Hoshi is looking at T'Pol. On the other side, Elizabeth Cutler leans against her chains in her effort to listen.

T'Pol has told them about the radiation poisoning, the genetic material, has not mentioned their fate.

She has also told the other women about the terms of the deal, that their lives are in the balance. She didn't have to tell them to comply, they alll volunteered to do so. As Corporal Cole said, 'one for all and all for one.' T'Pol is unfamiliar with the source of the quote, but it sounds comfortingly similar to 'the need of the many'.

T'Pol looks at Hoshi. Vulcans do not lie. Surak teaches that a life of integrity covers every aspect of one's behavior.

The women in the room are hanging on to what she says next. Their anxiety is pressing on her shields. She has been First Officer on a Human starship long enough to know about an elusive element called morale that must be granted concession to. It seems this is one of those moments.

"I will speak to Corporal Cole once a week so she knows we are fine. They will keep us prisoners on Aneukaria at first. Eventually we will be involved in a cultural initiative." Once they reach Aneukaria, if they haven't been able to escape, and chances are they won't be, she will let thiem know.

Hoshi and Elizabeth lean back, relieved. She feels a rush of hope go through the room. Now they all can focus on the question of their escape.

* * *

_Notes from the Author_

_I think you will agree these are somewhat different aliens than in the mirror story. Note that it's not because someone says something (i.e. liberate the women) that they actually do it, or do it the way we would expect._


	5. Linnaeus - Act IV

xxx

**_Enterprise_**

Quincy turns around at the scream. That sounds like the chief engineer. He stands there, metronic sensor gauge in hand, staring in open-mouted surprise at what looks like Trip having a grand mal seizure.

Several engineers are already running over to their commander. Quincy gets to him first, throws his tool to the side as he kneels by Trip whose eyes are revulsed in his head and limbs shaking as if by an invisible electric storm.

"Commander Tucker!" he yells, "Trip!" The shaking has subsided and the dazed engineer is sitting up, helped along by several hands. He brings a hand to his head as if to ward off some unseen pressure.

Phlox has arrived, rushes to him, scanner at the ready. The doctor frowns. "Sickbay!" he orders the two orderlies showing up with a gurney.

Trip doesn't protest, spooked by what happened. He gets up and silently lays on it.

xxx

"I asked Captain Archer to come down and join us."

Trip looks at Phlox with a degree of anxiety. What could be so wrong with him that Archer needs to be involved? Does it mean he can no longer function as chief engineer? Will he have to leave Starfleet, the Enterprise? And what about T'Pol?

Phlox is uncharacteristically quiet, shuffling from own foot to the other, his entire stance somber. "What do you know about Vulcan bonds?" he finally asks the Engineer.

"Huh, I," Trip rubs the back of his neck with his hand, "I guess-"

"Do you have a bond with Commander T'Pol," Phlox cuts in, unwilling to enter into yet another round of obfuscation with the engineer.

"I kind of do, yes," Trip admits, "but I'm Human, it's not that strong."

"Not that strong, hmm. Can you 'connect' with her over long distances?" Phlox wishes he had even the remotest idea of what a bond feels like.

Trip thinks back to the Constitution, the two of them have rarely if ever been far apart since then, "huh, yes?"

Phlox looks at his feet for a second then at the engineer. "I am not that well versed in bonds but I understand that if the bond is suddenly interrupted, like by the demise of one of the bondmates, the resulting physiological shock can kill the other bondmate."

Trip nods silently. He's not too sure about it but if the doctor says so... not that he understands what it has to do with him anyway.

Phlox clears his throat, "There's nothing wrong with you. And I have no biological explanation for what happened." He paused, hesitant, "I'm afraid that it could be a sign the bond you have with T'Pol was suddenly ruptured." He pauses again. "As would happen if something happened to her."

Seeing that Trip's still not catching on, Phlox exhales, "I'm so sorry, Trip, but the only explanation I can find is that T'Pol is dead."

Trip is shaking his head from side to side, "No, that can't be." He looks imploringly at Phlox, "it can't be that! You have to find something else!"

"Your levels of corticortisol are very elevated," Phlox gently replies, "you show signs of activity in regions of the brain that are usually dormant. Everything points to a psi trauma."

"But I'm psi-deaf!" Trip exclaims.

"Which is why the shock didn't kill you," Phlox goes on, "I've already informed Captain Archer, he's on his way. But he doesn't know about the bond." Phlox looks meaningfully at Trip, "I surmise you want to tell him yourself."

xxx

"I don't see another explanation," Phlox is apologetic but firm in his belief.

"It doesn't mean anything," Archer replies, "and it certainly doesn't mean the others are gone, too. In any case, I don't want either of you to say another word of it to to the crew."

Phlox nods forcefully, "I agree, Captain, the effect on morale would be quite deleterious."

"She's not dead," Trip's shaking his head, refusing to entertain the notion. He'll never believe it, not until he sees it with his own eyes. And if that never happens he'll spend the rest of his life looking for her.

Phlox looks at him with sorrow. Archer's scowling, not wanting to believe it but accepting the possibility. That's what a Captain does, rally the troops and keep going even when things go to hell in a hand basket. As they seem to have.

xxx

"_Captain's log - Dr. Phlox and Lieutenant Reed were able to identify the general direction of the Aneukarian system based on the recordings from our first dinner. We've repaired the dilithium converter and are proceeding at warp five. It's only a matter of time before we find the radiation signature from the Tarorat. Once we do, we'll intercept, or worst case scenario follow them to Aneukaria. Morale is fair, though Dr. Phlox tells me the men are showing signs of stress. Lieutenant Reed has security personnel roaming throughout the ship to stop any fights at the first sign. Thankfully, the only people who know that perhaps the women are dead are myself and Commander Tucker, and neither of us believes that's the_ case. _Computer, pause_"

Archer stops the recording. He's taken a huge gamble by going straight towards the Aneukarian system before they could find the Tarorat's signature. He's bedrock certain the Tarorat is following a similar route and that at some point they'll find the radiation trace of the alien ship. It has to be. He flips the recorder on again.

"_Computer, start again_. _I've asked Phlox and Lieutenant Reed to figure out why the Aneukarians took the women. If the Aneukarians need them, it could be they're still alive." _

As he talks, Archer is aware that there are twenty-plus Human women and one alien. The Aneukarians may have a use for the Human women only. Phlox could be right. He pushes the thought aside. As far as Trip's concerned, T'Pol's alive. She just has to be.

Overall, he doesn't believe the aliens' statement that they wanted to liberate the women. It doesn't make sense. Women don't need to be liberated from men. Of course, there are tensions from time to time, but that's always been the case. Because women simply don't think the same way as men. Fortunately, everyone has come to realize that's a good thing, it's that difference in perspective that has enabled Earth to come out of the Eugenics War in more or less one piece.

Archer hesitates, his finger on the release button. Should he add something about how they're being spread thin, how without the women everything is taking longer. He decides not to, it would make him see weak, like he's whining. Starfleet captains don't whine. They pull themselves up by their bootstraps. The brass won't care to hear that the Science team is short-staffed, that trying to find Aneukaria without T'Pol on board and while having to replicate the dilithium converter at the same time they need to figure out why the Aneukarians abducted the women is an impossible task. No, they'll only want to hear that he found a way to do it.

He decides to end the log there. Phlox and Reed will have an answer soon enough. Right now his main worry is that they find the signature trace of the Tarorat. Archer swallows, bounces his water polo ball against the far wall. He knows he took quite a gamble by warping ahead to where they think Aneukaria is.

He gets up abruptly. He'll be on the bridge, watching Travis and the science teams try to find trace of the alien ship. Not that he'll be of much help, but anything's better than sitting around waiting.

xxx

_"Captain's Log - We're warping ahead towards the Aneukarian system. Commander Tucker and Lieutenant Reed have completed the sensor retrofit and the expanded range will help find the trace signature of the Tarorat__. Based on the specs of the replacement engine, Commander Tucker is confident that the Tarorat can't exceed warp 3. We should catch up with it within the next couple of days."_

Archer gets up from his computer, leans over the desk, sighing. His log is much more optimistic than he is. He scratches at the day's beard, remembers that he forgot to shave. He's spending his entire days pacing from the bridge to his ready room and back, and still no sign of the Tarorat. He's starting to worry that perhaps he overshot on this one, perhaps their estimate of the Aneukarian system's location was off. He slaps his desk with the palm of his hand. They've gone over the details of the conversation a hundred times. The Aneukarian system can't be anywhere else. And the Tarorat must by force be in close proximity. There are only so many safe routes...

The doors chime and open on Phlox. The doctor walks excitedly into the ready room. Archer blinks a couple of times, he finds it hard to focus. Phlox stops in his tracks, stares at him, "You need to sleep before you fall asleep on your feet."

"My feet and I are perfectly fine, doctor," Archer bites back. Part of him realizes that didn't make sense. But the hell is he going to show any signs of weakness, even to Phlox.

Phlox doesn't let that faze him, he's had his share of aggressive comments from the crew lately. He wishes that were not the case with the captain. Denobulan men would be much more relaxed about the whole thing. "Well, yes, I'm sure you are," he placates, "but when I leave you're going to sleep or I'll sedate you. Your choice," Somehow Phlox is still smiling as he delivers the ultimatum.

Archer's too tired to give much of a rejoinder, "Fine, fine," he waves at the air. Actually, he's looking forward to laying down. Perhaps he'll even get a few minutes of shut-eye before the guilt startles him awake, the awful feeling that he made a mistake, that they should have waited to find the Tarorat's signature, that now they'll never find the ship. Or the women.

Phlox is surprised at the quick concession but not one to look a gift horse in he mouth. He goes back to he reason he came, "I've got the answer!"

"The answer to...?" Archer asks. There is more than one question on the Captain's mind.

"Why the Aneukarians took the women!" Phlox announces, "it is that they need them!"

Archer looks at him. Does that mean the women are safe? Phlox is already going on, "We've been going through their access to the ship's database, check what they were looking for. It was all about Human history, sociology, biology, there didn't seem to be a connecting thread." Archer nods, making a gesture with his hand for Phlox to get to the point. The doctor notices and obliges "So instead, we focused back on them. Reed's team collected all the alien DNA from their quarters."

"And?" Archer doesn't have the patience for this.

"We extracted enough DNA that it looks like we've got almost all the Aneukarians. What we found," Phlox pauses for emphasis, "is that half of their DNA is damaged, the exact same sequence. I cannot figure the cause, and when we correct for age differences, the damage seems to have happened at the same time!" he finishes. "It must have been some kind of external influence. Possibly an environmental disaster of planetary scale. But most importantly, the damage genomes are very similar to some that exist in Humans."

"And?" Archer doesn't follow.

Phlox is reminded that the Captain is not a man of science. He needs to articulate the obvious, "They need the women to repair their DNA."

"Uh?"

"They can't rely on normal evolution mechanisms," Phlox explains, "the same exact genetic sequence is damaged in all the Aneukarians, whatever their age. It means it came from single source. It would be physically impossible to create an entire society with a single genetic antecedent unless somehow they carried the source along with them. They need external DNA because they only have one sex."

"They only have one sex?" that, Archer can understand, even if he can't.

"Yes!"

"So why did they take the women?" Archer's head is buzzing with too much information.

"To repair the DNA!" Phlox thought he'd already explained it.

"Not to liberate them?" Archer knew it, the women have no need to be liberated.

"Well, as for that," Phlox is deep in thought, "since all the Aneukarians we met were women, I think we can presume that's the only sex on their planet. From that perspective, men are at best an inoffensive interference and at worst an aggressive parasite. They would have taken the women because that's what they're familiar with. They must have looked at men as something to be free from," he adds.

Archer stares out the window, "What about T'Pol? Do the Aneukarians need her genetic material as well?"

Phlox turns somber, "Her DNA is not the same as that of Humans, there are very few points of compatibility with Aneukarian DNA. I'm sorry, Captain, but I don't think so."

Archer nods, "Let's not tell Trip, ok?"

xxx

Trip looks around their quarters. Everything's still as she left it. He can't bear to put her things away. If he did, he'd be accepting that she died, and darn if he's ever going to. Whatever happened, whatever Phlox said, he'll hang on to the hope she's still alive. And if it turns out she isn't, well then there'll be plenty of time to take care of things, right? In any case he's spending as little time as possible in his quarters. In their quarters. Until proven otherwise.

He's been doubling-down on shifts, had a cot installed in his office in Engineering. Not that he's needed it, they're only a couple of hands short, not like Sciences who's missing their leader — he winces, it's always painful to think of her — but he doesn't want to go back to his quarters and face the fact she's not there. Like now. He quickly grabs a fresh uniform and exits. There are showers on the exercise deck, he'd rather use those, exercise as a way to blow off steam.

He runs straight into Malcolm as he comes out. The two men eye each other silently, each gauging the other's grief. At least Malcolm doesnt know anything. Hoshi's still alive. Trip has a flash of resentment that he alone has to bear the pain.

"You ok?" Malcolm asks,weighing the dark circles under his friend's eyes, the thinner set to his face.

"Yeah, just had to get a change of clothes," Trip gestures at his room with the wad of clothes he's holding, realizes he's giving excuses for being in his own quarters. He shrugs. Malcolm will understand.

"Yeah," the security man nods in turn. He understands only too well. At least Hoshi kept her own quarters, he doesn't have to hurt several times a day. "We'll find them!," he adds. This has become a rallying cry and a mantra among the crew.

Trip eyes him in silence, "Yeah, we will," he mutters. But will there be anything for him to find? Phlox says T'Pol's dead. He doesn't feel like the bond's no longer there, but he doesn't trust what he feels, he's psi-deaf after all. Perhaps she's dead and the bond has been severed. He would need to feel the bond again to remember what it feels like and know for sure it's no longer there. Somehow, he thinks he would know if the bond has been broken, but he doesn't have a base of reference. He doesn't know anymore.

xxx

_"Captain's Log - We're still on course to the Aneukarian system. Nothing __new to report."_

Archer shuts off the recording harder than he needs to. 'Nothing new to report' — It's been ten days since the women were abducted and there's still no sign of the Tarorat. It looks like he went on a hunch that was as wild as it was misguided. But he's still convinced it was the right thing to do. Has to be. He can't afford to doubt himself.

The Tarorat's route and theirs have got to intercept. They've got to. Now that they're getting closer, they've noticed a black hole close by, meaning there's only one safe quadrant for all ships. He feels a kindship with the explorers of old who went out on a limb because they believed there was something there. He believes too. Now if he could only be right...

"Bridge to Captain," the intercom chimes.

Archer jumps on it, too fast to make believe he's jaded about the findings, "Yes, Travis?"

"We've got a trace, Captain!" the ensign tries a measured tone and fails miserably. Or is it the animated chatter in the background that gives him away?

"On my way!" Funny thing to say when the bridge is exactly 4.5 meters away. Actually less, Archer is already there, looking over the science team's shoulder at the readings on the screen.

He balls his hands whete nobody can see them and gives a silent prayer of thanks.

Xxx

_"Captain's log - We've found the signature of the Tarorat. We've not been able to catch up with them. We'll track them all the way to Aneukaria if we have to."_

Archer stretches away from his desk. He'd notice how tired and achy he is if he weren't so overjoyed. After a manner of speaking. He's elated on the one hand, he would be even happier if he could tell how far behind the Tarorat they are. If T'Pol were there, she could tell them how many days since the Tarorat went by, they'd be able to establish a game plan. But none of the scientists or Reed or Trip can tell him how stale the engine signature is. His only choice is to follow.


	6. Linnaeus - Act V

xxx

_**Enterprise**_

"_Captain's log - It's been three weeks since the Aneukarians abducted the women. We have entered Aneukarian space but the signature traces from the Tarorat have dissipated. We are looking for the planet Aneukaria."_

Archer shuts off the com, narrowing his eyes at the main screen. There's no telling how long ago the Tarorat has gone by now. Trip said they were five days behind at least. That's not enough information.

He looks over at the crewman manning the science station, trying to match name to face. Swarthy complexion, stocky build, "Specialist Sidhoum, can you extrapolate the Tarorat's trajectory based on the signature traces we've been following? Catalogue every Minshara-class planet along their course."

"Aye, sir. Would you like bands at 5 percent confidence intervals?"

Archer nods, "5 percent, yes,"

T'Pol trained her people well. But if she were here, she'd have provided the estimated trajectory before he'd even thought of asking for it. And to think she might be dead — he stops the budding thought. Not productive.

He goes back to the field of stars on the main screen, trying to locate Aneukaria by sheer force of will. If Phlox'sright and the aliens need the women for their DNA, they have plenty of time to find them. Per Phlox, it will take more than five days for the Aneukarians to get what they want.

Still, something spurs him on to find Aneukaria sooner rather than later. He can't shake the feeling that time is of the essence.

xxx

_**Tarorat - Storage Room**_

The absence of noise rises T'Pol up from her half-sleep, half-meditation state. The deafening silence means that the Tarorat's engines have stopped. For three weeks now, the subtonal hum of the alien engines has been loudly reverberating through the detention area, at least loudly for a Vulcan.

T'Pol looks up. The others have not noticed anything yet but they notice her looking up.

"Something's happened?" asks Hoshi. Whenever someone comes by, T'Pol knows about it even before they arrive.

"The engines are no longer operating. I believe we have arrived at Aneukaria."

T'Pol looks around at the eight other women. A few days before, she's informed them of what awaits them on Aneukaria. She has not told them that the rest of the crewwomen are being treated like royalty, in individual quarters with free access to food and entertainment, that they while away the time as they wish, except for their restricted access to the rest of the ship.

She's been meeting Corporal Cole every week under the watchful eyes of the Aneukarians. A few minutes each time, but long enough for them to exchange a flurry of information. The conversation the Aneukarians hear has no relation to the actual conversation being held, silent and hidden.

The Aneukarians blink often and repeatedly and T'Pol has taken to blinking just as often and just as repeatedly — except in Morse code, in which Cole is proficient. The trivial exchanges of "is everything all right?' 'yes, it is' mask in-depth discussions about escape plans and the conditions of their imprisonment.

The cell doors open suddenly on a quad of unknown Aneukarians in black jumpsuits who march in with the precision of a well-trained military unit, a comparison helped by the rifles in their hands. The aliens position themselves in front of each woman and the tallest guard walks to T'Pol, neural stick in hand. She quickly sits up on the bench, having no wish to encounter the stick again.

"I am X-Distsax, captain of the guards," the tallest guard announces, "You are being removed to the Imperial Jail, to await execution."

T'Pol glances over at Hoshi. Their situation has just taken a turn for the worse.

xxx

_**Tarorat - Crewmember Quarters**_

Hesse looks up at the knock on the door, looks over at Ensign Cole. She was right, the engines have stopped, they've arrived. The two of them are in the living area of her office-sized cabin.

Not much has come of their limited freedom. They've been working non-stop on escape plans while waiting for Enterprise to find them, but every plan fails because of the nine Starfleet women kept hostage in the storage area of the Tarorat, the oens they cLl deviants. They can't hope to get to them in time, beforethe Aneukarians kill them.

Plus they're only fifteen against forty-two bigger and much stronger Aneukarians, and they've got no knowledge of the internal design of the vessel and no way to access the engine room and, say, blow up the engines. Trying to escape would be an exercise in futility.

Instead, they've been doing what they could to soften the detention conditions of their crewmates. After the meetings between Cole and T'Pol, Hesse is always careful to keep it random so as not to awaken suspicions, she comes up with yet another slate of demands in exchange for the women's cooperation.

Invariably, some of those demands have to do with how the deviants are treated. Invariably too, all the other demands are too outlandish to be easily granted. Hesse couples the requests with reminders that Humans are fragile and that refusing could lead to losing deviants along the way.

That has the desired effect. X-Eliantix was right, X-Aljikax wants the deviants to live until they reache Aneukaria. So bit by bit, Hesse has been able to get them food, showers, and exercise, even some entertainment.

She's now working on a secondary list that includes actual sleeping quarters and also make-up, that one just to throw the Aneukarians for a loop — she can just imagine the look on T'Pol's face if it's granted.

But now they've arrived on Aneukaria and Hesse has no idea what to expect next. "Come in," she says in response to the repeated knocking. She exchanges a meaningful glance with Cole. Their captors, and they're so polite as to wait to be invited in.

X-Eliantix and X-Aljikax step in, bow to the Human women. Behind their back, Cole rolls her eyes at Hess. This whole veneration thing's getting a little ridiculous.

"We've arrived at Aneukaria," X-Eliantix announces. "Your care will now be overseen by the troops of her Excellency." "We came bade good-bye," X-Aljikax adds.

Hess eyes them coldly, once again glad at T'Pol's acumen in choosing Cole as the go-between. That's given her the room she needs to act, "What about the deviants?" she asks.

"The troops of her Excellency will assume their care," X-Aljikax replies, "until the purification ceremony." She's very pleased that she's not lost any of the deviants during the journey. There's going to be a ceremony the likes of which have never been seen before.

Hesse's heart skips a bit. "We want to see them first," she declares. Perhaps they can stop this madness.

X-Eliantix blinks several times, but X-Aljikax cuts her off before she can say anything. "That will not be possible," the Aneukarian replies, "you already had an interview earlier this week."

Cole narrows her eyes at her. "And we will continue to have interviews every week. Or our agreement is over."

She's threading on thin ice, the Aneukarians could easily call her bluff by threatening to kill any of them.

But it seems the Aneukarians have gotten used to the state of affairs. "They're now under the care of the troops of her Excellency. There is nothing further we can do," X-Eliantix explains. X-Aljikax has the good grace to look almost embarrassed, " We have let them know about the weekly meetings but they are much stricter, they may not agree," she adds.

Hesse thins her lips. "Nothing will happen until we can meet them in person," she states, aware there's no firm ground under her feet. Let the Aneukarians call her bluff.

xxx

_**Enterprise**_

"_Captain's log - We have located Aneukaria and are approaching at quarter impulse. Lieutenant Reed and the security teams are analyzing the planet for any signs of a defense perimeter. Their findings will help decide our strategy."_

Aneukaria's a distant marble in space, only visible when the sensors are magnified to their full capacity. Archer's staring at the main screen, trying to tell if there's any kind of defense mechanism.

He shuts off the recording. What's the saying again — 'one if by land and two if by sea' — there's no land or sea here. The only question's whether they arrive with all canons blazing or creep in under the cover of the night.

Trip looks at Archer, "I say we rush them, grab the women and destroy the Tarorat along the way."

"That would be my preferred plan," Archer nods back, "but we need to make sure we're not falling into a trap." He turns towards Reed, "Any sign of defenses?"

The Englishman sighs thinly. As if the Captain hasn't asked this question twenty times already, "The science teams are still analyzing the long-range scans. They have a direct line to the bridge. They'll call as soon as they're done."

Archer turns to Trip, "How are the engines?"

"Fit as a fiddle, fully calibrated and ready to go."

"And Engineering?"

"We're a few hands short, especially with Hesse missing. It takes more than one person to replace her."

Archer mulls it over for a few seconds, turns back to Reed, "Locate personnel from less-essential stations that can be moved to Engineering. Are we ok on weapons?"

"I've lost my second-in-command and a couple of reliable personnel, just like Commander Tucker," Malcolm replies, "and that's just steady-state. If we're going to attack I need a half-dozen extra hands."

Archer nods, "Same as with Trip. Just make sure the Weapons and Engineering are fully staffed."

"Aye, sir." Malcolm bends over his console, busying himself with its readings. He can't let the Captain or Trip see that his eyes are suddenly moist. He's thinking about Hoshi, about never seeing her again. He'll write her a letter telling her how much she means to him.

He takes a deep breath and straightens up. He's never been emotional, what's wrong with him? They have Aneukaria in their line of sight, they'll go in, knock a few heads, get the women back. No reason to be emotional.

He stares at the main screen with a clenched jaw, hoping the science teams will report there's no defense perimeter. If it were up to him, he'd inflict painful losses on the Aneukarians just to teach them a lesson.

xxx

_**Aneukaria - Imperial Jail**_

The door opens in a metallic clang and a tray is pushed in, the door closed again.

T'Pol slowly gets up from where she's been reclining against the wall, takes three steps towards the tray, then stops. From habit she knows that the chain that keeps her tied to the wall will not extend further. She kneels and stretches the remaining couple of feet until she can grab the edge of the tray and pull it to her, careful not to upset the jar of water.

Once she has the victuals in hand, she splits the heavy pancake-like bread into nine equal parts, then grabs the plate and presents it in turn to each of the other eight prisoners. The jar of water is passed around next, each woman drinking shallowly before handing it to the next one. T'Pol declines her share, she won't need water until the next day.

There's enough water for a second round. Hoshi's the last one in line. It's be her task to bring the empty plate and jar close to the door. T'Pol's the one in charge of sharing the food. That way everyone knows the portions are exactly equal.

Hoshi places the tray next to the door then sits back against the wall, putting her head on her knees. Hunger is a permanent companion these days. She looks up at the window filtering light high above their heads. Dust particles ate dancing in the light, an incongruous spectacle in the dark jail.

xxx

_**Aneukaria - Palace**_

"We've got to see them!" Hesse snaps, aware she isnt saying anything the twelve women in the room don't agree with.

Since their arrival, they've found themselves celebrated, feted, the highest dignitaries of Aneukaria pressing for opportunities to be seen with them. They represent the hope of an entire world. Everyone's falling over themselves to ensure they'rewell taken care of while the Aneukarian geneticists scramble to develop efficient methods to recover their DNA.

But they don't let it get to their head. Plus it personally sticks in Hesse's crow to find herself little more than a pampered pet, her entire value based on the fact she has two ovaries — which she darn well plans to keep to herself. But that'll be a different fight for a different day.

Right now, they need to figure out how to keep in touch with T'Pol and the others. Their collaboration is no longer necessary, X-Igofox has gotten all the information she needed during their trip. Even if Enterprise comes to rescue them, and Hesse is confident it will, it's Archer they're talking about, and Trip, they'll go to the ends of the universe to get their crew and T'Pol back. Except that they may be too late.

"How about a hunger strike?" Ortiz suggests.

Cole shakes her head, "All they'll do is put tubes down our throats and force-feed us." They've learned that as a group the Aneukarians are coldly practical.

"They would if we tried a hunger strike," Akhoun muses, "but what if it's deeper, like we're emotionally depressed because we can't see them?"

"You mean all of us are depressed?" Hesse's hard put to think how they can pull that off.

"Not all of us," Akhoun's quick to correct, "but maybe there's one among us that's more sensitive and so depressed that she refuses food or won't get up. The only way to make her better is for them to let us see T'Pol."

"How's seeing T'Pol going to help with her depression?" Cole asks dismissively.

Conversations erupt all around as the women consider the possibility.

"Hold on," Hesse raises a hand, waiting for silence. She looks around at the women, "We know they form tight couples, who serve together." Cole makes a face, the serving together stuff's unacceptable under Starfleet policies. Hess waits for a couple of beats, "Like X-Eliantix and X-Igofox."

There's a murmur around the room as the women nod their assent.

"But we don't have couples like that," Cole grumbles. "I mean, they don't serve together as couples," she adds lest she be misunderstood.

"Says who?" Hesse looks at her.

Cole blinked, a habit she'ds caught from her meetings with T'Pol. But she stays silent. She doesn't know what to say.

Hesse decides to let her off the hook, "Florence Beausang is my second-in-command," she starts, "and I don't know that I can keep functioning unless I have news from her."

"Huh?!"

Hesse sighes. Cole can be obtuse at times. But the others are already catching on. Several 'Yeah's' and 'That could work' sound around the room.

It's Cole though who raises the one sticky point, "But what makes you think she'll say the same?"

"T'Pol will figure it out when she hears that Beausang is my wife," Hesse confidently asserts. She's not as confident as she projects. Inwardly, she prays that their Commander will go along with the scheme and not start asking questions.

xxx

_**Aneukaria - Imperial Jail**_

T'Pol is watching the dust particles as well. The light reflects on them in shades of gold. Gold the color of Trip's hair.

She re-centers herself. She has been blocking the bond since the incident with the neural stick. The pain was so intense, so unexpected, that it overpowered all her defenses. There's a possibility Trip was impacted. Enterprise would have been close enough when it happened.

But these days their only interaction with the outside world is the trays that are pushed through once a day, not enough for Human - or Vulcan - long-term survival. Enterprise may be far away. She can relax the block.

Chances are that Enterprise will be too late for her and the other women in the room. She focused on the glowing dust particles as her guide to meditation.

xxx

_**Enterprise**_

Trip's keeping a careful eye on the isothermic chamber levels. Quincy is a good engineer but he's young, untested rather, in the sense he's never have things go to crap at the exact time his whole world relies on them.

Everyone should go through a disastrous test flight scenario, he reflects. Actually, they should add that to the Academy's curriculum. What d'you do when there's nothing left to do? D'you just go for one last desperate bid, a special Hail Mary pass, like use your own ship as a baseball bat, or do you fold and wait for death to take over?

He turns around, he's needed on the bridge.

And steps straight into a white fog.

His first reaction is one of controlled panic, trying to figure out where the white fog came from, whether anything is on fire, as if the desperate situation he was just thinking about happened, as if it has hust been waiting for his temporary inattention to sneak into Engineering.

And then he realizes what it is. But it can't be. Phlox said she was dead and as much as he doesn't believe it, he still can't allow himself to trust that this is the white space.

"T'Pol!" he calls, turning around in a circle, looking all around.

She's there in a corner, sitting in her customary meditation position as if there's nothing to it. She raises a delicate eyebrow at his utterance and narrows her eyes slightly to let him know to lower the volume.

"T'Pol!" he repeats as he falls on his knees at her side, afraid to reach out. It can't be. Can it. He stares at her, trying to commit every feature to memory, trying to compare every feature to the memory he has of her.

"You're alive!" he can't believe it, "I thought you were dead!" he adds. It strikes him that out of the hundreds of mental conversations he's had with her since she disappeared, this is possibly the most inane. But he can't think of anything else to say.

He can't tell her how he's been pretty much out of his mind ever since Phlox told him she was dead, how life has become tasteless and dull, it's too complex and too enormous for words. He thinks about touching her so she can feel the depth of his feelings and the intensity of his loss, but he realizes he can't touch her. He actually can't.

She seems the slightest bit irritated at him, "Why would I be dead?"

All of a sudden everything falls back in place in a glorious burst of normalcy. Count on her to kill his trite Human emotionalism with pragmatism. Trip laughs softly. He's never been happier. "It's a long story." There are more important subjects than to tell her how he's been poleaxed in Engineering, and Phlox's suggestion that perhaps she'd died. "Phlox thought perhaps you'd died."

An eyebrow comments eloquently on the falsity of that presumption. But then she blinks, looks at him as if from far away, "He may be right, the Aneukarians are planning to kill us."

"What?! What's going on? Where are you?"

"We're on Aneukaria —"

And abruptly the connection's lost, her last statement echoing throughout his mind 'we're on Aneukaria... on Aneukaria... Aneukaria..."

He's back in Engineering, he's already running to the bridge. T'Pol's on Aneukaria and she's going to die soon.

That's all he knows. That's all he needs to know.


	7. Linnaeus - Act VI

xxx

**_Enterprise_**

"We're still too far away," Reed shook his head, "we can't see their defense system."

"Perhaps they don't have one," Trip offered hopefully.

Both Archer and Reed paused to look at him. "Considering how artfully they got the better of us, they have one." Archer wrily commented. Trip wanted to pace but the Captain's ready room was too small. Archer noticed, "We can't just rush in blindly, Trip," he placated.

"But T'Pol said they were going to kill them!"

"But they hadn't yet!" Archer snapped back. A few hours before, the chief engineer had barged in on the bridge out of breath to pull Archer aside that T'Pol was still alive, that he'd seen her. Archer's first reaction had been to drag him to Sickbay where Trip underwent a battery of tests but Phlox had been unable to find anything wrong with him. Trip kept insisting he'd seen T'Pol.

And then Phlox had talked about some kind of bond. First he'd learned that two of his most senior commanding officers were in a relationship and now this. Part of Archer didn't believe it. He didn't quite understand this hocus pocus about Vulcan bonds.

Still, there was the possibility that Trip was not simply suffering a mental breakdown. And if so, if Enterprise arrived too late they risked losing all the women. If they arrived too early, they risked losing Enterprise with all hands aboard. Not much of a choice, really.

"How's morale and battle readiness?" he asked his two officers.

Reed replied first "Morale will be improved once we have an attack plan."

Trip nodded in agreement, "The men are tired, they've been pulling extended shifts for a while now, but they'll be ready in a jiffy. Anything to get the women back."

Archer looked out at the window for a couple of beats. He turned to Reed, "We'll keep approaching at quarter impulse until you're done with the recognizance," before talking to Trip, "I want combat readiness reports from both of you."

xxx

**_Aneukaria - Imperial Palace_**

"What's wrong ?" The servant was flustered, looking at Hesse lying on the bed, sobbing loudly into a pillow.

"She's missing her wife," Cole replied, "her companion." She hoped the Aneukarian would understand the term. She didn't know how Hesse managed to carry on so loudly but she was anxious not to prolong the pretense past the engineer's theatrical talents. "She's too depressed to eat," Cole added.

The servant grew anxious, "She doesn't want to eat?!" she exclaimed.

"She hasn't eaten since yesterday because she doesn't want to eat. She needs to see her mate," Cole replied

"I'll go get the doctors!" The servant was close to panic. The aliens had to eat regularly or they would die. If one of the Exalted Ones came to die, it would cost her her life.

Cole tried to stop her, "The doctors won't help. Her spirit is sick, not her body," but the servant was already out of the room.

That was just as well. The plan was working.

xxx

**_Aneukaria - Imperial Jail_**

"Are you lying?" X-Distsax leaned closer, bringing the neural stick within an inch of her face. T'Pol looked at it then calmly back at the guard. "Vulcans do not lie." Surak has said that preserving life was sacred, a duty above all others. Her confirmation that Ensign Beausang was Lieutenant Hesse's mate was a way to protect both women.

She made sure not to blink, blinking would seem emotional to the Aneukarian. Their isolation had suddenly been interrupted by X-Distsax barging into the room and making a straight line for T'Pol, asking about Hesse and Beausang. T'Pol realized that this must be part of a plan, but not quickly enough, and that had made the guard suspicious.

The other women in the cell were holding their breath, waiting for what would happen next. X-Distsax eyed T'Pol closely. She wasn't sure the alien was telling the truth but she hadn't blinked so it was hard to say. Those in charge wanted the Human to get better. The Human shouldn't have a deviant as partner, but these were aliens, they couldn't be expected to have a moral fiber. The Human would get better once she heard her partner was fine. And X-Distsax would make sure that's what she heard.

She leaned in threateningly, "You'll meet with the Human Cole. "You'll let her know that her mate is doing well. If you don't, you'll taste the singing stick. Do you need a taste now to remind you?"

"I do not," in saying that at least T'Pol was being true to Surak's teachings.

X-Distsax laughed a raucous, unpleasant laugh, "Funny, everyone says that. You know what we do when we train to become guards?"

"I do not know." The guard was making it easy to follow Surak's teachings.

"They make us taste the stick every day for a month," X-Distsax leered, smiling, "to teach us to handle pain. You want to train to become a guard?"

"I would prefer not to."

X-Distsax laughed, "I was just kidding, deviants can't become guards! Ah!" She raised the neural stick up and for a second it looked like she would use it to make her point. T'Pol's gaze didn't waver. X-Distsax finally brought it back to its holster. "I'll come pick you up. Be ready."

She left T'Pol silently reflecting that it was not like she had another option.

xxx

**_Aneukaria - Imperial Palace_**

Cole was waiting impatiently for the envoy. "Where are they?!" she snapped at the servant fussily preparing the table for the meeting. The Aneukarians insisted there be a table, that T'Pol be handcuffed to it.

"They're coming, Exalted One," the servant's voice was high-squeaked with fear, "please do not upset yourself."

Cole eyed her with contempt. She despised the Aneukarian for treating her like she was some kind of divinity. And she was angry at herself for making her afraid. "I want to make sure they're coming," she grumbled as way of an excuse.

The knock at the door prevented the servant from answering. Cole sat at the small table, eyeing the food and drinks on it. She'd negotiated that T'Pol would have one hand free, be able to eat. She would also be able to use that free hand for covert communication, but that was not for the Aneukarians to know.

The doors opened and the captain of the guards walked in with the Commander. Cole repressed the exclamation that almost escaped her at the sight of the gaunt and pale woman. She blinked back tears of sorrow and frustration. At least on the Tarorat they were able to soften the brutal treatment of their crewmates.

Her jaw set. They would do it again. They would have to proceed carefully lest the Aneukarians take it out on the women. Push too hard and they might get rid of one of them as a lesson. She shot a murderous look at X-Distsax but it went over the guard's head — Aneukarians expressed their emotions by blinking.

"Commander T'Pol, it's good to see you. " Cole welcomed T'Pol, rapidly blinking 'are you ok'?'

"Corporal Cole," T'Pol replied, while signing 'food and water'.

Cole nodded. That would be the first demand they'd make to the Aneukarians.

"Please share my meal," she replied, signing 'How are they treating you?'

'We are kept alive,' T'Pol signed with her hand. To the Aneukarians monitoring the room, it only looked like she was reaching for food.

Cole waited a couple of minutes for the Commander to eat before asking, "Lieutenant Hesse needs news of her wife, Ensign Beausang. She's really depressed about the separation."

"Her wife also regrets the separation...," T'Pol replied. In light of the guard's threat, she added, "but she is doing well," while signaling, 'is DNA testing over?'

Cole frowned in response. "Lieutenant Hesse wrote a poem for her mate. If I say it out loud, can you repeat it to her?" The Aneukarians would run the poem by their encryption department but find nothing. It would give them something to do. While she was repeating the few lines she had memorized, she silently let T'Pol know that the Aneukarians had completed their research, hormone treatments would start soon.

T'Pol looked up sharply at that but did not say anything.

The rest of the conversation went in the same way, the two of them speaking out loud about specific topics while covertly exchanging information on recent developments. A double knock at the door informed them that time was up. Silently thanking her lucky stars that the Aneukarians' reverence for the Exalted Ones prevented their uninvited intrusion, Cole quickly helped T'Pol fill the inner pockets of her jumpsuit with food. Any small amount would help.

As X-Distsax escorted T'Pol over the threshold, Cole stopped her, "Lieutenant Hesse would still like to see her wife. When can that be arranged?"

X-Distsax turned to look at Cole, seeming to find the question funny. "She'll see her soon enough," she replied with a chuckle. She left Cole staring at her retreating back, wondering what she meant by that.

xxx

**_Enterprise_**

Archer stared at the afternoon assembly, looking meaningfully over at Reed and Trip. He cleared his throat, letting his gaze roam over the men, "We are proceeding against Aneukaria as of 0800 tomorrow." The room exploded in shouts and cheers.

He raised a hand to quell the ruckus that erupted. "We're three billion miles from the planet and it will take a couple of days before we get there," he glanced over at Reed, no need to share that how long it took hinged on when the chief of security finished the recognizance, "but I want everyone combat-ready as of 0800 tomorrow. Do whatever you need to rest and sharpen yourselves. Combat drills will start at 1000 sharp." He paused for emphasis. "We're bringing the women home!"

A raucous cheer rose again to salute his speech. Several men picked up the refrain 'We're bringing the women home!' and pretty soon the meeting hall resonated with the rallying cry. Archer decided against asking the men to quiet it down. They needed the release, they'd spent too much time feeling like there was nothing they could do.

He spotted Phlox eyeing him dubiously from across the room. If the doctor wanted to make an issue of it, he'd find the Captain ready for an argument. He turned on his heels to stare at Phlox as he approached.

"Are you really planning to attack Aneukaria? An entire planet?" the doctor asked.

That was not what he'd been expecting Phlox to say. The question took the edge off his prepared argument about how the men were not over-tired. "We're still figuring out their defense system, our strategy will hinge on it," he replied, then dropping his voice, "if they don't have one, we could get the women back without a fight but we'll fight if we have to."

"That's my concern," the doctor cautioned, "the men are eager to engage, perhaps too much so." Seeing the Captain's nonplussed look, he went on, "they've been waiting for weeks and now they have the opportunity to do something to get the women back; the situation is ripe for overreacting." He eyed Archer meaningfully, "Let's remember that the goal of the operation is to bring the women back, not destroy Aneukarian civilization."

That gave Archer pause. 'Tell that to Trip, if they've killed T'Pol,' was what he wanted to say. What he said instead was, "I'll make sure our reaction matches the harm done."

Phlox eyed him critically, "That's what I'm afraid of. Remember that the Aneukarians were trying to save their civilization. They may have been acting out of ignorance, not of malice." He could see the Captain was resistant to the idea. "What you would do if you had to save Earth? Or rather what wouldn't you do?" Phlox knew he was hitting a sensitive spot, the Captain still carried the guilt of the Illyrian theft.

Archer shook his head, started protesting, then fell quiet, evidently mulling things over.

"I'll be in Sickbay," Phlox announced as he left. Granted it had been a low blow, but he'd achieved what he came to do.

xxx

_**Aneukaria - Imperial ****Jail**_

The women all looked up as the door opened. That was the second time in two days someone actually came into their cell.

A foreboding squadron of black-clad guards walked in, X-Distsax at its head. She walked over to T'Pol, "You will come with us." T'Pol reflected that once again it was not like they had another option.

The nine of them were unsteady on their feet from lack of use and hunger, even if the food that T'Pol had brought back'd helped. They found themselves being herded down corridors that were dark and damp, up endless flights of steps, before coming to immense decorated doors that hid a large freight elevator. The elevator started moving upward. When the doors opened again, they stepped out into light and warm hallways. From her meeting with Cole, T'Pol recognized the Imperial Palace . It was possible the Aneukarians had brought them to meet with Hesse and the other women.

But the room they were brought to was empty if large, brightly lit, lined with recliners and soft couches. T'Pol looked around, taking in the luxurious accoutrements.

Hoshi stared in awe-struck amazement at the long table lining a wall, plied full with food and drinks. She looked over at T'Pol, expecting a shared a sense of victory that the meeting between Cole and T'Pol had worked. But T'Pol stared back impassively and Hoshi turned instead to the others. Beausang was beaming. Nagamura had her hands covering her mouth as if to suppress shouts of happiness. They were all beaming. After days of misery, they were going to be warm, to be fed, and from the look of things, baths and showers would be theirs too.

If Hoshi had been watching T'Pol from the beginning, she would have noted the skeptical eyebrow that went up when they entered the toom, the slight crease that momentarily lined the Vulcan's brow. Where Hoshi and the other women saw a feast, it looked suspiciously to T'Pol like a last meal.

The squadron left except for X-Distsax. The doors opened again and X-Eliantix and X-Aljikax stepped in.

T'Pol raised an eyebrow. Both women were wearing ceremonial tunics that were obviously a notch above the ones they had on the Tarorat. They must have been promoted. Most likely as a result of their securing the women of Enterprise for the good of Aneukaria.

"Have you checked on the Exalted Ones?" X-Eliantix asked X-Distsax.

"Everything is in order," the guard reported, saluting, before leaving in turn.

Hoshi looked incredulously at X-Eliantix. The 'Exalted Ones'? T'Pol's lack of reaction confirmed her suspicions that the moniker referred to the other women. She was amused at the idea of Hesse as an Exalted One. She wished the Aneukarians would spend some time seeing her in Engineering, get their ideas debunked.

X-Eliantix looked around at the room, taking in the food, the couches, and nodded approvingly, "Good, good. We want you to be refreshed for your big day."

"Big day?" asked T'Pol.

X-Aljikax turned to her, neural stick in hand and T'Pol remembered she should let the Aneukarians talk first. But X-Aljikax was too excited to take notice. "The cleansing ceremony is upon us. Everything is ready. It will be exceptional!" she said.

"The cleansing ceremony?" T'Pol asked again, suspicious of the Aneukarians tendency to euphemize things, as in calling neural punishers 'singing sticks'.

"We told you that you'd be disposed of in a purification ceremony on Aneukaria." X-Aljikax's sounded surprised, almost put-upon.

X-Eliantix started explaining, looking apologetic, "Even though you're aliens, our laws are strict. X-Igofox tried to talk to the doctors here but we were not able to sway her preeminence, X-Irtanimox, or the _Irivmeced_, her counsel." She blinked. "I was almost accused of heresy."

X-Aljikax cut her off, "The cleansing ceremony is a great honor, the demonstration of everything we hold dear. We haven't had one in hundreds of years. You will be remembered forever."

"We'd rather be alive," T'Pol commented drily.

X-Eliantix looked actually pained, "I'm afraid that's not possible," she replied.

xxx

_**Enterprise**_

Trip walked in into his quarters. For the first time in weeks he didn't feel torn just being there. He quickly took off his uniform, bunching it in a corner, enjoying being back home. He'd spend every minute before 0800 sleeping, thats what. He stretched back muscles made sore from stressing about T'Pol and the state of his engines, and promptly fell asleep.

His sleep was uneven and fitful. Again and again he almost woke up, threading close to awareness before diving deep again. Finally he woke up enough to check the digits on the side of the clock. 0417 AM. He was exhausted. He still had a few hours before him and he turned to go back to sleep. To very soon swing his legs over the side of the bed instead, nature was calling. He didn't ask for lights, there was enough residual glow to find his way in the quarters he knew like the back of his hand.

"I was waiting for you." The voice almost made him jump out of his skin, except it was T'Pol's. He turned to see where it was coming from and stepped straight into the white space. Surprise gave way to elation. So he was not crazy, the time before had not been a dream. She was alive.

There was so much he needed to tell her, find out from her before the connection disappeared. "We're on our way to Aneukaria!" he exclaimed. "Do you know where you are on the surface?" he added.

"The Imperial Jail," T'Pol replied, before correcting herself, "the Imperial Palace."

There was something off with her. He couldn't put his finger on it. She seemed exhausted, as if meditation had been a struggle, her eyes underlined with dark shadows. And she was a lot thinner than he remembered. "Is everything ok?" he asked, then he quickly added, because there was no telling how long the white space would last, "Dr. Phlox said they need Human DNA — what about you, will you be okay?"

She blinked. "I am not the only one at risk. The Aneukarians will not use genetic material from women who are in relationships with men..."

"What?" what did she mean by that?

She blinked again. "Women who are in relationships with men. They call them deviants. There are nine of us." Trip hid his surprise that there were nine relationships aboard Enterprise. He only knew of five, and Travis and Amanda had just broken up. Again.

"So then why did they take you?" Trip rapid-fire asked, "That's good, right? That means they don't need you,"

"Trip...", her voice trailed off before she could finish. The white space was gone.

"Lights!" Trip called, looking all around at the cabin. But there was nothing there. What had she said? The 'Imperial Jail', no 'Palace'. He quickly grabbed a fresh uniform. Time to wake up the Captain.

xxxm

_**Aneukaria - Imperial Palace**_

T'Pol slowly came back to her surroundings, the contours of the white space coalescing into the large room around her. After spending most of the night trying to reach Trip, she hadn't had enough energy to maintain the meditative resonance.

She had almost made contact several times before she realized the Aneukarian time cycle coincided with the one on Enterprise, he must be asleep. She had to wait in a high meditation state for another couple of hours, checking periodically to see if he was still in a REM sleep cycle. By the time he woke up, she could only maintain the connection for a few seconds.

All she had been able to do was tell him where they were on Aneukaria. She didn't know how far away Enterprise was, if it was even possible for them to come back in time and rescue them. It might be too late when the ship arrived.

When.

Not if.

She had to admit relief at the thought. The shift in probabilities was minute, but it was there.

* * *

_Glossary_:

X-Irtanimox - ruler of Aneukaria.

Irivmeced - Aneukaria's main Council.

X-Eliantix - captain of the Tarorat.

X-Aljikax - second in command on the Tarorat and X-Eliantix's mate.

X- Igofox - doctor on the Tarorat.

X-Distsax - head of the Imperial Guards.


	8. Linnaeus - Act VII

_xxx_

**_Enterprise Time: 0522_**

Phox looked up from his medical journals, quickly checking that he hadn't been sleeping. The physician in him recognized it as a trauma-induced reaction to the recent shock of waking up to find that he'd been drugged and all the women abducted.

He was relieved to find he'd not been asleep. That should have been comfort enough but a minute later, he was on his feet. It was too early but he'd go to the bridge, check that everything was okay. That too, he recognized as a reaction to having manned the ship all alone that time they crossed the nebula, when he'd been hallucinating the whole time. He had no interest in a repeat performance and wanted to make sure that he wasn't alone on Enterprise.

This time, if T'Pol appeared and started talking to him, he'd know it was an hallucination. The thought stopped him in his steps, frowning slightly. That was also what happened to Trip. He would need to research it further, perhaps a comparative study on stress-related hallucinatory experiences in Denobulans and Humans, and their triggers. He nodded to himself, yes, that would be an interesting paper, and resumed his way to the bridge.

He did a double-take upon exiting the turbolift. He'd expected the parse delta shift complement but the place was jumping instead with the full alpha shift and more. He approached the Captain's chair, looking around. "Is it 0800?" he asked pointedly.

Archer threw him a sideways glance, went back to checking the padd a junior officer handed him, "We've had some news," he said with a head gesture towards Trip.

Phlox turned to look at the engineer, currently in close consultation with Sidhoum, the two of them hunched over a magnified image of Aneukaria on the science console. The junior was talking to Trip, pointing out to something on the screen, and the engineer was nodding in response.

Phlox turned back to Archer. "Hmm?" that was commentary enough.

Archer sighed, glanced at Trip, then at Phlox, "Trip saw T'Pol again, this time she told him she was in the Imperial Palace."

"And?" Phlox was quickly scanning his database of Human psychiatric knowledge. Could hallucinations be communicable? Was Archer on a wild goose chase after a figment of Trip's imagination?

He seemed to read his thoughts, "We haven't changed a thing," he added, "only the science teams were recalled during the night, they're trying to locate the Imperial Palace."

He motioned to Reed with his head. Phlox could see he was in a sidebar conversation with three other security men. "I asked Lieutenant Reed to join too, the findings may be useful to him."

"Captain!" Both men turned to look at Sidhoum calling their attention to the screen. "There are areas of heightened population density," the scientist was pointing at the screen but Aneukaria was little more than a large dot with close-up views checkered all around it.

"The Imperial Palace?" Phlox asked.

"Centers of power are usually highly populated." the ensign said to Archer, "It could be one of these."

Archer eyed the screen narrowly, "Keep going, Ensign, see if one of these could be it. Reed, how are we doing on the recognizance?"

The chief of security shook his head, "Still nothing. The intercept mechanism could be closer to the planet."

Archer's eyes were fixed on the screen. There were limits to how carefully he was willing to thread. "Travis," he called over to the helmsman, "increase speed, get us to within a billion miles," they still wouldn't be visible, "and then drop back to qjuarter impulse." He turned to Reed, "I want an answer before we get there."

xxx

_**Imperial Palace - Exalted Ones - 08:32 A.M.**_

"I told you to leave me alone!"

Hesse looked up from where she and Cole were figuring their next move, hurried over to where the sound was coming from. It was Akhoun, red in the face, yelling at a flustered servant. "What's going on?!" Hesse asked.

Akhoun turned to face her, close to tears, "I don't want another goddam massage, I don't need to be pampered, with nothing worse to worry about than a split nail. And god knows how that could happen, the way they," she spat the word, "keep us wrapped in cotton. I'm not some prized possession! I'm a Starfleet officer! I want to be able to walk out, to go climb mountains, to run a marathon. And I do not want another massage!" the last was said within clenched teeth.

The servant was obviously torn between competing imperatives. The words of the Exalted Ones must be obeyed but she had her orders. She blinked her disarray at Hesse.

"Humans need freedom or we will be no good for Aneukaria," Hesse told her. That was as good a starting point as any. Akhoun's meltdown had been totally unexpected and yet it couldn't have come at a better time. "Humans don't thrive unless they're emotionally satisfied," she went on, "we don't want to be stuck in a room being fed and honored, we need to go around, to see our friends, our companions."

She'd managed to bring it back to a request to see the deviants. She glanced over at Cole who'd just arrived on the scene. It was a gamble. She mentally crossed her fingers that it would work, that the Aneukarians would grant hem their wish.

xxx

_**Imperial Palace - Preeminence Chambers - 10:23 A.M.**_

"This cannot be!" X-Omedlox blinked twice in indignation, turning to the preeminence, her confident and sometime lover, She was almost as old as the preeminence, and much more staunchly conservative in her views. "We cannot be subject to their continued blackmail! I say we act now!" she went on.

"They're merely asking to see their companions," X-Eliantix argued. She understood the tight bonds that could form on a ship. In the face of danger and the unknown, little did it matter whether the person next to you was a deviant.

"They're deviants!" X-Omedlox roared, as if that word alone was all the explanation needed.

_"_They're still their companions," X-Eliantix argued back.

"The Exalted Ones could refuse to cooperate with us," X-Igofox added. X-Eliantix had called her for support as soon as X-Omedlox started arguing for killing the deviants right away. That had reopened the question of the deviants' fate and it gave her one more shot at having them spared.

X-Eliantix was glad X-Aljikax was not with her, she would have been arguing the other side. She preferred not to dwell on the moral differences that animated them. That may be an issue that would split them asunder but she was not ready yet.

"My point exactly," X-Omedlox retorted, "If we keep the deviants alive, the Exalted Ones will keep blackmailing us. We need to get rid of them now!"

"But we have not finalized our research," X-Igofox shot back.

X-Omedlox scoffed. "We already have what we need. We can keep the Exalted Ones alive whether they want to or not. We don't need the deviants." She said that last part with contempt, hinting it should have been done on the Tarorat.

"That's a limited vision," X-Igofox protested. "We could use these alien deviants, there's nothing wrong with their genome."

"Deviants are polluted!" X-Ynehekid almost shouted back. She was the leading medical advisor to the preeminence and an ally of X-Omedlox. Her word was unfortunately weighty.

"But they're aliens!" X-Eliantix exclaimed in turn. She implored X-Irtanimox, "Their physiology's not the same."

X-Omedlox also turned to X-Itranimox, "We already decided to dispose of the deviants. Are we going back on that? The only question before us should be that of timing."

"These are aliens, not subject to our rules," X-Eliantix argued again.

"Sparing them would fly against the face of everything we hold true!" X-Omedlox raised her voice, "And dear!"

"The people will understand!" X-Eliantix shouted back.

"Stop!" X-Irtanimox raised a gnarled and weathered hand, "We are not revisiting the matter." The revered elder turned to X-Eliantix, "It is not a question of them being aliens, itt is a question of our civilization."

She paused. "There is no time to soften our beliefs. I hear what you say and if times were different perhaps... But our world is dying, people need something to anchor onto. We haven't had a cleansing ceremony in hundreds of years, this will mark our shared values, provide hope for the future."

"Can't we wait for our future to be assured before we execute the deviants?" X-Eliantix asked, her strategic instincts on alert.

But X-Irtanimox turned to General X-Crafonaox without answering her, "Is the sacred space ready?"

The general bowed. "Everything is ready for the ceremony, your preeminence."

X-Irtonimox blinked brusquely twice. "Then let it be. We will proceed tonight. From morning to night, as it was written. Thus I have spoken." With that the revered elder turned around and retreated to her private chambers with the unsteady gait of age.

X-Omedlox and X-Eliantix stood staring each other down unblinkingly. Finally X-Omedlox turned on her heel and left.

X-Eliantix looked at X-Igofox with sorrow. The aliens had saved them and even though they were deviants, she felt bad about their fate.

xxx

_**Enterprise Time: 1121**_

"The moons themselves turned out to be defense outposts, here, here and there," Reed pointed at the screen, "each with an armada of spaceships hidden behind it, ready for anything that comes through."

Trip leaned in closer, checking the relative position of the asteroids. Archer was scowling at the screen. He'd called for a full stop, didn't like it. On the other hand he'd learned not to rush ahead unprepared. "Can they see us?"

Reed shook his head, "Not at this distance. It would be difficult to tell us from a random stellar phenomenon."

"How many of these things d'you say there are?" Trip's accent was thick, a sign of stress.

"Three so far. We're still looking for others."

Archer was frowning at the screen. "Find out everything you can about them, number, personnel, weapons, what type of toothpaste they use, everything!"

"We need to get through!" Trip interjected, "they're going to kill the women!"

Archer paused, seemed to consider. "How long to get the data?" he asked Malcolm.

"A couple of hours."

The Captain got to his feet, "All key bridge personnel in the command center at 1400. I'll ask Phlox to join us."

xxx

**_Aneukaria - 2:06 P.M._**

The crowd was hollering its fury, angry fists waving in the air, angry faces frothing at the mouth. Projectiles of all sorts splatterred against the force field surrounding the cart, some with the repulsive squeashiness of rotting matter. The stench still came through, gagging the figures tied to poles on the cart. The guards hanging on to the railing of the slow vehicle would sometimes lean into the crowd to push back an overly aggressive onlooker.

Something whizzed right by her ear before hitting the forcefield and Hoshi startled. The mob greeted her reaction with loud jeers and catcalls. She hardly heard them, wondering instead why it was she wasn't scared even though she was being slowly carted to her death.

Perhaps it all had happened too fast. One minute they were lounging in their new rooms in the Imperial Palace, the next minute X-Distsax, X-Aljikax and some Aneukarian who looked about ready to keel over from age came to let them know the cleansing ceremony was happening now.

There'd be no time to process the news before they found themselves tied to that stupid cart, inching their way to god knows where except it would be unpleasant. She'd had no time to think. And when she did, all she could think about was that Enterprise would come. It just didn't feel real. Had never really felt real.

She looked around at the others on the cart. Beausang was pale as a ghost, had been pale since the announcement, but not a word escaped her lips. Nagamura was crying non-stop, silent tears streaming down her face, it seemed she would never stop. Browardsky had completely given over to the panic invading her, shaking her head and saying 'no' over and over. Cutler looked immensely sad, and T'Pol was impassive, as always.

Hoshi envied T'Pol her preternatural calm. She wondered how the noise and ambient hostility were impacting her. Vulcans were sensitive to the feelings of those around them. The thought dawned on her that may be why T'Pol had helped her that time on the disabled Klingon ship. She must have been radiating anxiety miles around, it would have been tough for a Vulcan.

Come to think of it, she'd never again felt really scared since that time. Perhaps that's why she wasn't getting crazy anxious even now. At least so long as she didn't think of Malcolm. If she thought of him, she would go to pieces. She couldn't afford it. She went back to watching T'Pol instead.

xxx

_**Enterprise - Time: 1416**_

"The idea is we swoop in, bomb a couple of places, and leave with the women," Trip stated. Everyone in the command room nodded.

"We could simply ask for the women back," Phlox chimed in, increasingly uncomfortable with the bellicose tone of the meeting. "Humans have a saying, speak softly and carry a big stick'," he added, "American baseball, I believe."

Archer shook his head, "Not a sport, politics, but that doesn't apply here. They're the ones who attacked us." He turned to Trip, "How long would it take to transport them?"

"A little less than twenty minutes."

"After we get through the defense system," Malcolm pointed out. "Once we pass by a moon all its ships will come out to attack. And there's the other moons as back-up."

"How long for the other moons' ships to join the fun?" Archer asked.

"The alert must be out to all outposts at once. The distances are too short for warp. Twelve minutes or so, give or take a couple," Malcolm replied.

"If we override all the safety routines, we could complete the transport in twelve minutes," Trip added, "it could work."

"We'll be fighting and trying to transport the women at the same time. That's splitting our forces," Malcolm was not sanguine about the idea.

"Trip can man Engineering from the transport room," Archer said, "once we've dealt with the first outpost." He looked around at the room, "All thoughts are welcome."

"We could rush them," Travis said softly in the deepening silence.

Archer looked up, "Rush them?"

"Something my dad taught me," the helmsman replied. "Lieutenant Reed's comments about warp made me think of it. It's from American football."

"Another Terran sport?" Phlox asked. But Archer stopped him with a raised hand. "Explain." Trip shot him a glance. That's what T'Pol would have said. It made him miss her more.

The pilot leaned over the screen, pointing, "If we go to warp here and come out here, at the apex of their atmosphere, we'll be right behind the moon. We can take the ships out as they come out."

"That's an incredibly dangerous maneuver!" Trip protested.

"That will give us the time we need," Archer cut in, "and the element of surprise." He turned to Travis, "Think you can do it?"

"Aye, sir!"

"American football, hmm?" Phlox had no idea what that was but he looked at Travis appraisingly. The helmsman shrugged humbly.

Archer turned to Reed, "We'll have to come out all guns blazing."

"Not an issue, Captain!" Malcolm almost snapped his heels.

"We still need to find where the women are." Archer looked at Trip, "Anything you can tell us?"

They all turned to the engineer in surprise. Trip could feel himself blush. Jon misunderstood the bond. It wasn't like T'Pol and him were physically connected, like he could tell where she was. He shook his head ruefully, "We've got a couple of potential sites. We're also monitoring planetary transmissions but there's a lag. I told Sidhoum to join us the moment they have anything."

xxx

**_Aneukaria - 2:28 P.M._**

Unaware of Hoshi's interest, T'Pol was busy estimating the time left to them. They had been following an outward spiral from the Imperial Palace to what she expected was the site of the cleansing ceremony. Based on the speed of the convoy and the size of the growing crowd following them, ithe site was close. It wouldn't take much longer. The afternoon was already advanced.

The buzz of aircraft and the running commentary that wafted above the crowd let her know the media was involved. As the parade marched on, the mob was growing increasingly hostile. The features of the Aneukarians pressed against the cart, or as close to it as the guards allowed, were distorted by hatred. Left alone to its own devices, the mob would have torn them to pieces. It was nervous, excited. Its hot hatred was something thick, almost physical, that painfully pressed on her from all sides. She kept staring ahead, focused on maintaining her shields against the raging emotions.

And then the music started, a thumping of Aneukarian instruments that was particularly irritating to the Vulcan ear. T'Pol retreated deeper win her mind, trying to isolate herself from the deafening noise, the hostile crowd and the alien stenches. She found a welcome space at the center. The outside cacophony quieted down, she was able to catch her breath.

"Where'd'you disappear to?!"

She almost startled at the voice. What was Trip doing here? She was not event meditating. She realized that in trying to escape the unpleasantness she had unwittingly achieved resonance. There was no time to answer his question. She urgently needed to let him know. "They're taking us to be executed," she quickly said.

"What?! Where are you..." Trip took a deep breath, grabbed the bridge of his nose, "Forget about that! How much time?!"

"Based on extrapolation —

"T'Pol!" Trip snapped. This was not the time to go Vulcan on him.

"We're almost at the appointed place —," T'Pol stopped herself as she saw Trip frown. "I do not know," she finally said.

"Where are you?! We're almost at Aneukaria!"

She looked around, "An area wide enough to contain tens of thousands of Aneukarians." She looked in the distance, "We're approaching a structure large enough to be observed from space. I estimate that must be the killing site."

"Listen, we're almost at Aneukaria!" Trip repeated, "We can be there in minutes! Try to delay—"

She didn't know what he was going to say. There was a sudden commotion and she opened her eyes into the snarling face of X-Distsax. "Another move like that and you'll taste the singing stick!" The Aneukarian was angry.

There was a pain in her side where the guard had struck. T'Pol didn't answer. The wrong answer could easily trigger the sadist guard's rage. She looked around at the crowd. It had grown ten-fold, slowly funneling the cart towards the structure. There was no doubt this was the killing site.

There was no way to tell how long the cleaning ceremony would take once they were inside. Trip had said Enterprise could be there in minutes, with customary Human imprecision. There were sixty minutes in an hour. There had been no time to qualify the information.

When the odds could not be calculated, hope was an appropriate response. She hoped Enterprise would show up in time. In the meantime, she needed to think of ways to delay the proceedings.

xxx

**_Enterprise Time: 1452_**

"Are we keeping you up, Commander?" Archer snapped. The engineer was staring slack-jawed into space. Trip startled as if waking up from a dream, blinked around the room, finally settling on Archer's face, "We must act now! There's no time! The Aneukarians are about to execute them !"

"What?!" Archer cried.

"They're on their way to being executed! We need to get there ASAP!"

Malcolm was looking slack-jawed at Trip. Travis was gaping at the engineer also. "I can't explain how I know but I know!" Trip exclaimed.

Archer exhaled between clenched teeth. "How much time?"

"I don't know! She didn't know! But they were being brought to the execution site!"

"Were they alone?" Phlox asked.

"No, there were tens of thousands of people, T'Pol said they were on their way but she didn't know how long it would take. They weren't there yet," he stopped himself before it could sound any crazier.

"We have to assume there'll be some kind of ceremony," Phlox told Archer, "these take more than a few minutes."

"Captain!" Sidhoum entered the room at a run, gasping between breaths, "... a transmission... we have the women!"

"Everyone to the bridge!" Archer shouted. They all left a a run.

xxx

_Glossary:_

_X-Irtanimox - ruler of Aneukaria._

_Irivmeced - Aneukaria's main Council._

_X-Eliantix - captain of the Tarorat._


	9. Linnaeus - Act VIII

xxx

_**Enterprise**_

The silence on the bridge can be cut with a knife. They've just watched the nine women on the cart slowly making their way through a rabid crowd. Pugin is focused on his console, nervously comments, "There's a lag because of the distance; these images were from a couple of hours ago."

"When will they reach the structure?" Archer asks. That must be the execution site Trip was talking about.

"Based on their rate of progress, they should be getting there about now."

There's a quick intake of breath from Trip and Reed. Archer shoots them a look. There'll be words when all this is over. He exhales forcefully, "So we have no idea what's happening right now..."

"Given the setting, there will be some ceremony, it could be lengthy," Phlox offers in the dawning silence. He hasn't left the bridge yet.

"And it could be not," Archer turns to Sidhoum. "What about the other women?"

The scientist looks embarrassed, "We're still translating the feed. Some of the concepts are not rendered by the UT. But we expect it will mention them, that's only logical." Trip shoots him a sharp glance. He wishes people would stop using T'Pol's expressions, even if they're part of the science team. Reed frowns. Hoshi would've had the entire thing translated already. She was fluent before the Aneukarians even left the ship. Except that they took her with them.

Archer turns to Trip, "Can we still beam all of them in twelve minutes?"

"It depends on their exact coordinates," the engineer is frowning.

That's enough for Archer, "Sidhoum, keep monitoring, find out where they are. Travis, get ready for the jump, Trip, Reed, in my ready room, now!"

"Aye, sir!" they answer as one.

xxx

**_Aneukaria_**

Hesse looks down at the tens of thousands of aliens pressed inside the huge stadium. There's several times as many outside, their attention riveted to enormous screens set at regular intervals for miles around. She's seen them over the pilot's shoulder a few moments before they landed.

In light of how fast their request to go outside has been granted, she expects they'll soon be allowed to see the other women. They're in a cordoned off section of the stadium, under heavy guard. Premium seats based on their plunging view on the large stone stage that dominates one end of the arena. It's well worn and well weathered, lavishly decorated with carvings and sculptures that she can't quite figure out, obviously a place of great importance. A complex contraption stands close to the center of a stage, that looks like a cross between a crane and a giant easel.

She looks around at the other women. They're busy scanning the crowd and the stadium, also trying to figure out what's going on.

Cole walks to her side, pointing to the machine with her chin, "Any idea what's that?"

Hesse shakes her head, "I've never seen anything like it. Perhaps part of a game, or a show." There's a sense of excitement in the arena. Obviously an important event is about to happen.

Cole frowns, "I don't trust them."

Hesse privately rolls her eyes. Cole's always suspicious, part of the job, she guesses. A clamor from the farthest point of the stadium calls her attention. A wave of screams and shouts spreads through the crowd until it reaches the rows directly below them. The aliens there start cheering, except it's not a cheer, more an angry sea of fists and shouts. A float with small dark Aneukarians has entered the stadium. She's never seen the likes of them before, they must be a different race. The float is parting the crowd slowly, its way painstakingly cleared by a squadron of armed guards. Hesse startles. That's not small dark Aneukarians on it! She's caught sight of the blue of Starfleet uniforms. It's the other women!

There's an expression of surprise from Cole, a gasp from someone in the back. That's confirmation enough. Hesse looks at the stage and the machine, dread suddenly coiling inside her. Is that for them?

She scans rhe crowd for any more information. A few rows up she sees X-Eliantix and X-Aljikax making their way into another reserved area. They'll know what's going on! But she finds her way barred by a guard. "Let me go, I need to speak with them!" she snaps at her.

"Apologies, Exalted One," the guard answers, "you must stay where you are."

"Have them come to me, then!" Hesse tries to sound imperious. She looks up to where X-Eliantix is, hoping to catch her eye. At the same time she's keeping an eye on the cart inching its way through the clamoring crowd, now seeming to go too fast by half.

She looks up at the sky, wondering if Enterprise is there. Hoping it is.

xxx

_**Enterprise**_

"Engineering's ready." Trip's back at his console. They've revised the strategy, all that's left is to go through the steps.

"Dr. Phlox," Archer says, his eyes on the main screen. The doctor understands the intimation and leaves the bridge. Archer looks around. "Ready, Ensign Mayweather?"

Travis put his hands on the helm, turns slighlty so he's visible to the Captain, "Aye, Sir."

"Captain!" Sidhoum suddenly interrupts.

"Yes?"

"The planet, there's not enough life signs!"

"What do you mean?" Sidhoum has to learn to give more details.

"Variations in the spectrum algorithm. The populated zones are not uniformly reflective, there's up to a 70% variance within the zones themselves!"

On the other hand, perhaps he doesn't need to. Archer turns to Reed, "What d'you make of it?"

The securiry man's frowning, eyes on the screen. "That may work in our favor. If they don't have enough people, the outposts may not be fully manned."

"Well, we'll find out, won't we?" Archer's jaw's set. He turns to Trip, "Engineering's ready to proceed?"

"Waiting for the word, Captain."

"Very well. Ensign Mayweather, take it away!"

"Aye, Captain. Warp Three!" Travis calls out.

"Warp Three!" Trip shouts back.

The stars turn into thin pencils of light rushing at the ship. Everyone on the bridge stops what they were doing, watches.

"Two minutes to Aneukaria," Travis says calmly. He braces himself against the helm, he needs to be one with the ship. The trick's to come out of warp at exactly the right point and Enterprise will be within shooting distance of the first outpost. One second too long, one thousand meters off and they won't have the energy to stabilize the orbit, will land inside the atmosphere, to crash and burn. One second too short and they'll end in a fiery explosion with the outpost. That'd be somewhat counterproductive.

Travis is staring at the relative field indicator, mentally adjusting for the gravitational drag of the planet and the other outposts. The seconds tick by. He suddenly leans over the helm, Yes, that's it, "Engineering! Shut off engines!"

"Got it!" Trip shouts. The engines stops.

The compressed space unfolds, pushing Enterprise into position. The ship hangs in space. "Coordinates 75,48,25" the computer calls. Travis lets go of the helm, slumping in his chair with a sigh. Eighty-seven yards off. That's as close to a bull's eye as you can get. Right by the moon outpost.

Straight in their line of sight...

"Engineering, we need power! Battle stations!" Archer shouts. Everyone tenses, waiting for the attack. But the defense outpost just sits there in eerie stillness, no transmission, no sign of movement.

Finally Reed talks, "Looks like nobody's home."

Archer pivots in his seat, "Perhaps they haven't seen us?"

Malcolm gives a small smile, "We're hard to miss. Sensors show no biosigns on asteroid." He looks again, "No biosigns either in the spaceport."

"What about the other outposts?"

Malcolm shakes his head. "Same, no sign of life."

Archer turns back to the screen. What Phlox has said comes back to his mind. The Aneukarians are dying. They didn't have a choice. Still, they took his crew members. He can't forget that. He can't afford to.

"I've located the women!" Sidhoum suddenly announces, "Two groups of Human biosigns, one Vulcan."

"Lock in the coord—" "We've got another vidstream!" Pugin cuts in.

"On the screen!" Archer bellows.

xxx

**_Aneukaria_**

The cart has finally arrived and the deviants have been brought up to the stage, the guards shoving and pushing back the rabid onlookers who try to tear them apart.

Hesse's had her heart in her throat for a while now. The sight of her friends and comrades under heavy guard doesn't help. They look thin, so small next to the apparatus on the stage. The crowd is frenzied, she fears they'll overcome the security cordon and rush the stage.

And then an eerie silence settles on the arena. She looks around, wondering. The angry faces are bowed in reverential silence. A grey Aneukarian, older looking than Methuselah himself, toddles onto the stage, a large retinue of Anakeurian dignitaries in her wake, including X-Eliantix and X-Aljikax. Hesse swears under her breath.

The old Aneukarian walks to the center of the stage and raises her hands high up in the air, imitated by the thousands of aliens in the arena and beyond. When she lowers them, she starts chanting, a low, guttural sound. The crowd responds with the same chant. Hesse figures this must be the preeminence. The ceremony has started. The preeminence starts alternatively talking and chanting for what seems a long time. Finally, two dignitaries silently approach her to hand with great care something that look like an inverted spoon. She takes it with both hands and raises it high above her head. Hesse tenses up.

There's a commotion on the left of the stage and a large animal is dragged in, bucking and fighting every step of the way. Its handlers struggle to secure it to the machine, in what looks like an impossible position, upside down or sideways. Hard to tell but it looks uncomfortable. The preeminence lowers the spoon. One of the handlers steps forward and pulls a lever.

The screams of the animal reach out straight to Hesse and the women as the apparatus slowly tears it apart. Blood flows all over the stage. The large screens focus on every gory detail. Horrifyingly, the animal's still alive, screaming and writhing in agony as the killing machine mechanically goes on with its torture. One of the handlers finally reaches out and dispatches the wounded beast while the crowd roars its approval.

There's an air of celebration all around, the crowd is chanting, swaying to and fro towards the stage in great waves of joyous cheer. The preeminence turns to the nine women under close guard next to the machine, addresses them in turn. Hesse watches in disbelief. It can't be what she's thinking, can it?

xxx

_**Enterprise**_

The bridge crew watches in stunned silence as the beast exhales its last breath. Trip is frozen in place, his mouth working in some silent exchange. Reed looks ready to boil over. A junior starts retching. That breaks the spell.

Archer forces his voice level, "What's she saying?" He's looking at the old officiant.

"It's an older form of the language, the translator's working on it," Sidhoum answers. "It's a religious ceremony," he adds.

"They're not going to kill them like that, right?" Trip asks nervously. It can't be, can it?

Archer doesn't reply. There's really nothing to be said about the obvious. "Pugin, when did you say this was?"

"A half-hour ago, Captain."

Archer gets up and paces towards the screen, "Travis, do you have the coordinates?"

"Laid in, sir!"

"Get us there stat!" Archer turns to Reed, "Who do you have flying the shuttles?"

"Dentsu and Skyler, sir," Reed answers evenly. Trip understands about keeping a clear head, not letting emotions in the way, but crap, that's his wife down there. He'd like to see some more feeling.

"Have them get —" Archer replies.

Whatever he's going to say next is drowned out by the siren of the red alert.

xxx

_**Aneukaria**_

The elder Aneukarian has stopped chanting and turned towards the prisoners. She starts again, possibly another litany before the final kill.

T'Pol suddenly looks up at the sky. She's just felt a fleeting sensation, a mind brushing against her for a few seconds. Trip! Enterprise is close by! There is no way her psi-blind mate could project at a distance. She needs to delay, give then time, any way she can.

Hoshi sees T'Pol suddenly topple over as if poleaxed. The guards surrounding her are taken by surprise, freeze, unsure what do do. The old officiating Aneukarian interrupts her speech to look over, trying to figure what's going on. Guards rush to the fallen woman. Hoshi would rush too except that T'Pol opens one eye at her as she lays seemingly senseless on the ground and Hoshi knows she's faking.

"Make a hole!" X-Distsax comes quickly from the other side of the stage, X-Aljokax at her side. She roughly shoves Hoshi aside, kneels by the fallen woman.

"Maybe she's sick," X-Aljikax suggests.

"There's an easy way to tell," X-Distsax snarls. She whips her neural stick out and rests it on T'Pol shoulder. "Either you wake up now or I'll use the singing stick," she barks at the prone figure.

T'Pol opens her eyes. She raises a hand in acknowledgement and goes to get up. X-Distsax sneers, "I changed my mind!" and fires the neural stick point blank at her.

T'Pol sees a traveling wave of fire spread up her hands and feet, reducing her fingers to ashes, going up her arms and legs, creeping sideways to her flanks, spreading upward and inward, consuming everything on the way. She screams in agony, raw cries that tear at her throat. The wave of fire disappears and she's on the ground, shaking in continuing agony as her muscles convulse uncontrollably. She's trying to catch her breath, a thin stream of blood marks where she bit herself in the convulsions. She cannot move, every fiber of her being is painfully locked. She's hauled up her to her feet and she finds herself held upright between two guards. Dark spots are dancing before her eyes. She feels rather than sees X-Distsax lean over.

"You'll be the last one to go, you'll see your friends die first," the guard whispers softly, then she turns and nods at the officiant. The ceremony can go on.

xxx

**_Enterprise_**

"AAAAAHHHHYYY!" The scream startles everyone on the bridge. Trip is white as a sheet, gripping his console in a death grip. "It's ok! I'm OK!" He quickly says, struggling to speak.

"Trip! What's going on!" Archer's almost out of his seat.

He's cut short by Malcolm, "23 degrees left!"

"Got it!" The helmsman is sweating, his fingers moving over the controls faster than seems possible. Enterprise banks obediently.

The Aneukarians may no longer be manning the moon outposts but they've left a large field of mines as protection. Lucky for the ship they came out of warp when they did. The mine explodes as Malcolm canons picks it up.

"We have to hurry!" Trip shouts. How can he explain the bond, that he could feel her pain, They're torturing her! They have to get there fast.

Archer frowns. As if they didn't know. His reply's once again cut off by Malcolm, this time shouting, "Mines all around!" Twin bolts erupt from under the starship's carriage, hitting two targets. The laser canons rotate and fire again, neutralizing two more. Enterprise dips down into the freed space.

"Travis, forward!" Archer shouts. He tightens his fists. They need to be at Aneukaria already. The ship rocks as Malcolm keeps picking out mines in close proximity, shouting positioning commands at Travis.

And suddenly they're floating in free space. The mine belt is behind them, there's nothing between them and the planet. They're through. "We're out!" Reed shouts.

"Travis, get us to the planet now! Pugin, load the latest vidstream!" Archer's staring intently at the screen, hoping they're not too late.

xxx

**_Aneujaria_**

Hesse's had her heart in her throat since that poor animal was torn apart. She watches helplessly as T'Pol falls to the ground, the guard hits her with that strange stick. Her screams reach them easily, the stage is built for that and they have premium seats. All the women cringe at the sound.

Their Commander's not dead, but she's now hanging between two guards, seeming to recover slowly. At least she managed to delay the ceremony, if only for a few minutes. Hesse shakes her head. It won't make a difference in the end. She wishes Enterprise was around. But that's not going to happen.

The old Aneukarian starts that weird chant again. Hesse looks up at the sky, catches herself. Help won't be coming from there. She looks over at Cole. it's time. Cole in turn looks at Vik who exchanges glances with Nagamura.

The women all group closer without seeming to. When the time comes, they will all rush the guards as one, hopefully get killed in the process. Possibly a couple of them will escape, possibly. Otherwise they'll all die here on Aneukaria. And that's fine. They'll follow their friends into the grave and make sure the Aneukarians get nothing.

Now they're waiting. She'll give the signal as soon as things go south, but not one moment before. Then they'll jump the guards. First one with her hands on a gun takes down the others.

xxx

**_Enterprise _**

The women are still alive! The ancient Aneukarian is still going on, arms raised over her head. T'Pol is closest to the machine, her head lolling, two guards holding her upright. It looks like she's first in line. Trip swallows hard.

The officiant is still chanting but things are about to happen. The guards grab hold of the other women, two guards to a woman. Archer leans over the edge of his seat, "Travis, we're going in! Reed, Trip, get ready!"

Operation Aneukaria is under way. Trip leaves at a run, Malcolm will follow. Soon. But first he has something to do.

Travis wants to yell "Geronimo!" as he thrusts Enterprise forward and down, straight into Aneukaria's atmosphere. But Starfleet officers have a decorum to maintain. And he has to aim just right, he doesn't want Lieutenant Reed to miss.

The ship shrieks and shakes as it enters the atmosphere, quickly dropping down from mach-speeds. The target is fast-approaching on the screen. Malcolm does not let his eyes off it. He must aim exactly precisely right. Too much to the left, and he's taking out his own people. Too much to the right, and he's killing an entire civilization. Like shooting an apple on your kid's head. Nothing to it, really.

He bends his head over his console almost as if in prayer.

xxx

**_Aneukaria_**

The point blank hit with the neural disruptor was worse than expected. She barely held on to her shields and her balance is still off, her limbs tightened by the residual effects, an uncontrolled tremor shaking them from time to time.

Because she's looking downward, she's the first to see the shadow gliding over the arena full of people. She doesn't have time to wonder what it can be. The killing machine explodes in a shower of sharp and hot fragments that sting like shrapnel. The sudden and deafening sound comes next. The wind from the explosion blows everyone around like bowling pins, including the Aneukarian officiant.

T'Pol manages to roll on her belly and push her on her arms and legs, disoriented. There's a thick layer of smoke that cannot be explained by the explosion alone. Guards are rushing to the Aneukarian officiant prone on the ground, hollering to each other. She can hear the whistle of an approaching shuttle but cannot tell where it's coming from.

She needs to rally, gather the others, this is the time to make their escape. She fights stiffened muscles to hobble back to where the women were.

Someone grabs her from the side. She won't be caught again. She won't allow it. Vulcan reflexes of old come to the fore. She turns to strike.

"Hey, hey! It's me!" Trip barely avoids the fist that aims straight for his temple. It strikes him in the chest instead and he winces with pain. Good thing he's wearing an exo-shield, she'd have gone straight through.

He grabs her and pushes her forward into a weird crab-like four-legged walk, she's almost out of it. He hands her off to someone inside the shuttle. Now that she's safe, he can turn back to the mission. Spinelli and Pei have already gotten most of the other women. Two more emerge from the smoke with their rescuers, walking in a crouch to avoid enemy fire.

The great billows of smoke are already clearing, small flames consuming what's left of the contraption. The elder Aneukarian's being carted away to safety. The Aneukarian guards are rallying. He sees the glint of guns being raised. Now's a good time to go. He hits the speaker on his chest, "Shuttle One to Shuttle Two!"

"Shuttle Two here," Malcolm answers.

"We've got them, we're out!"

xxx

_**Aneukaria**_

Hesse doesn't see the shadow over the arena, only the explosion. Smoke is covering the stage, hiding it from sight. She's pretty sure she saw that awful machine blow up.

The mood of the crowd has changed, anger turning to fear. The aliens are moving haphazardly, mostly trying to run away from the stage.

"We're going!" Hesse yells at the women. Now's the time. They gather together in a tight pack, turn around ready to strike. But only a couple of guards are left, hardly paying attention to them, trying to crane their neck at the stage and see what's going on.

A whistling sound cuts through. Hesse recognizes the engines of Shuttle Two, she'd know that sound anywhere. Her favorite lullaby. She looks behind, sees the shuttle turn the corner, hover in mid-air. The door opens and it's Lieutenant Reed gesturing at her.

"Everyone, change of plans! Walk backwards towards me!" she yells at the women. Cole hears her and turns around in surprise, gathers what's happening at a glance. The guards do the same and pull out their weapons. Reed lobs something that hits with a whoosh, spreading thick smoke around.

Hesse can still see the shuttle. "Everyone here!" she keeps shouting through the smoke, throwing her voice as a beacon.

The Starfleet men have anchored the shuttle to the platform, Hesse knows that equipment, something's going to give way eventually, most likely the platform. It must be Dentsu at the helm, he's the only one other than Travis who'd manage to keep the shuttle that steady.

The women come out of the smoke and get in, first get up on the ledge, an arm-lock with one of the men manning the anchors, then an assisted jump inside the shuttle. It's taking time. Hesse worries about the equipment. There's not enough room in the shuttle.

Suddenly five women shimmer out of existence. Hesse's heart jumps. Of course! The transporter. Between the transporter and the shuttle, they can handle all of them.

They're only three of them left. The smoke is clearing in their section. The guards have been following her calls too, they can make out the shuttle. Their guns are coming out of their holsters.

"Cover me!" Cole yells at Hesse, advancing on the guards, distracting them. Hesse looks in surprise. Cover her with what? A shot from the shuttle answers her and the guards fall, first one, then the other.

It's just Hesse and Cole now. "Go!" Cole pushes Hesse forward. She's a MACO, her job is to be the last in line. More guards are arriving. She sees the motion of a gun being raised. She rushes Hesse, flings her over onto the platform, hoists herself after her, feels the soft thump of two hits in her back. Two hits.

Strong arms pick her up and pull her inside. There's the clang of dropped equipment. The shuttle lifts off, there are more hits, many of them, none strong enough to pierce the outer skin. They're up, they're going.

Cole sees the sun, she thinks its the sun. So bright. the entire shuttle is filled with it. She closes her eyes in front of the brilliance.

xxx


	10. Linnaeus - Epilogue

xxx

_**Shuttle Bay**_

Shuttle Two is only a couple of minutes behind Shuttle One, gets into the Shuttle Bay on its heels. Dentsu is the best pilot after Travis, after all. The door opens. Hesse looks around, she's still holding Cole, has been holding her the entire ride. She suddenly notices Phlox at her side, she didn't see him come in. He's frowning. The real Phlox never frowns, she worries this may be a trick from the Aneukarian. Until he gently touches her shoulder, "You can let her go."

She looks down at the sleeping Cole. She's sleeping, right? She looks up at Phlox for confirmation but can't meet his gaze, he's looking somewhere else. Or he's avoiding her?

She lets go of Cole, Phlox grimly motions to orderlies waiting outside. They take Cole away.

Hesse walks out of the shuttle like a zombie. There are men milling around. The sight gives her pause. She hasn't seen so many men in... since the Aneukarians took them. The men are somber, their faces drawn. Cole's death has stolen the taste of success from their lips.

A gurney crosses Hesse's sight, the drawn sheet obliterating Cole's face. Hesse sees T'Pol seated down next to Shuttle One. The sight is incongruous enough she does a double take. She's never seent the Vulcan sit down like that, just crossed-legged in the middle of the activity. She's nursing her right hand. Phlox is talking to T'Pol, Trip hovering behind them. She nods a couple of times and he signals a gurney to come over.

She realizes she knew T'Pol from the ears, the Commander hardly looks like herself. The women from Shuttle One are all skin and bones. The doctor is passing a tricorder over each of them, each time saying "Take her straight to sickbay." Of course. She remembers Cole had said they were being starved. But that was abstract, Cole was the only one who saw them. Now she understands.

The gurneys are all leaving the Shuttle Bay. Now only the women from Shuttle Two are left. Hesse suddenly notices Captain Archer. She goes to salute and he stops her with a raised hand, "As you were, Lieutenant." He looks over the fifteen women in the bay, "I can't tell you how happy we are that you're back!" This has a magical effect on the men. All of a sudden the mood lightens up. The men start speaking loudly, some give voice to their elation, some make to hug the women or slap them on their backs, are not sure they should, end up standing around arms akimbo.

She loves them. All of them.

xxx

**_Captain's Ready Room_**

"No!" Archer shakes his head. There's no way this is going to happen.

"Listen," Phlox leans over the desk, "I understand that this doesn't sit right with you. But remember, the Aneukarians are dying. They truly didn't have a choice. We can pass judgment on their culture and their civilization, but can we truly afford to let them die?"

"You don't know what you're asking!" Archer gets up, circles his desk to come face to face with Phlox. "They killed one of my crew, abducted over twenty crew members and tortured half of them." He sees the doubt on the doctor's face. "And don't say that was not torture! No food, no water, no light - you know better!"

Phlox stands his ground, nose to nose with the Captain. He's not intimidated. "Yes, they killed Amanda Cole, but that was not out of malice. They were trying to keep the women from leaving. And yes, they abducted our crew, but from their perspective they didn't have a choice. As for the treatment of half of the women, T'Pol told you it was cultural. Whatever you may think of their civilization, that is your Human judgment on another race."

"All they had to do was ask, we would have helped them!" Archer counters. "Now, they can all go to hell."

"If we let them die, Cole's death will have served no purpose. She will be one more crewman who died accidentally, forgotten by all except those who were close to her. Or you can make it so that she died while saving an entire civilization. Which one do you think she'd prefer?"

Archer breaks gaze, turns back to the stars out the porthole, "I can't make that decision. Not alone. The men have to agree."

Phlox squints at him, "Let's ask them, then."

xxx

_**Shuttle Bay**_

Archer looks over the crew. There's a definite shift in the atmosphere. Where the men were edgy, quick to anger, they now stand taller, seemingly more relaxed. The women are there too, including those who've just been released from Sickbay. Phlox says they're all putting the weight back quickly, they'll be back on active duty in no time. Not a minute too soon, he's still down two bridge officers.

Travis is in the first row, his eyes red from crying. He'll never have the opportunity to make up with Cole. Archer gives him a slight nod. To think that two weeks ago he had no clue how many committed relationships were aboard Enterprise. Trip, T'Pol, Reed, Hoshi, Phlox, Cutler, Pugin, Beausang... He's not pleased, to say the least. But what does Starfleet expect him to do? He's put the bunch of them on administrative report, up to Starfleet to read the daily log details, if ever. By the time they do, who knows where Enterprise will be.

Archer clears his throat, "I know you're wondering why we're still within Aneukarian space," he starts. Many nod. They're safely beyond the reach of any Aneukarian reprisal party, but still... Archer explains what he and Phlox have been talking about, arguing about, for hours now. Talks about Cole. Talks to the men especially. "So in the end," he says, "it's up to each and everyone of you whether to participate. This is not a vote, but if enough of you refuse, we won't do it." He pauses, looks at them. "Those who want to be included, just say 'aye'. Dr. Phlox here will keep a record."

"Aye!" "Aye!" "Aye!" At the third 'Aye', he looks at Phlox in surprise. The doctor is smiling, not as shocked as the Captain. The approvals keep coming, faster than he can log them. Five minutes later Phlox turns back to the Captain, "Everyone. All the men." If he were Human, he would tell Archer 'I told you so'. He's always wondered what that felt like.

xxx

_**Aneukaria**_

The dignitaries are seated in the Great Council Chamber, staring at the case on the dais in the center of the room, under heavy guard. An unusual silence fills the chamber. Nobody's arguing. Nobody's asking for the right to speak. They're all blinking in consternation, anger, resignation or acceptance, according to their beliefs.

X-Irtanimox is presiding over the Council from the ceremonial chair. She would stand but she is still shaken from the explosion because of her great age. She's also staring at the box. The Humans have played a great trick on them. If she could, she would wipe the universe clean of them. The arrogance. The arrogance!

But she has not lost any of the acumen that has allowed her to survive and become the preeminence. The Humans have left them with the ultimate dilemma, but she can help guide the Council to what is best for her people. All of Aneukaria can survive. Their entire civilization.

To do so they will have to swallow bitter dregs. She shudders at the thought, can only imagine how many citizens will simply refuse, preferring to see their lineage become extinct. But others will accept the challenge. And survive through the generations. Those who were already more lenient, are more flexible. That's how life usually goes. The more adaptable survive. Her task is to help as many of the others to cross over and accept the unthinkable as she can.

The unthinkable brings her thoughts back to the Humans. The Humans! She cannot afford to let her anger negate what's in the best interest of her people. The case resting on the dais is full of DNA, and that is what counts. The scientists have already figured how to extract the segments they need. They can start tomorrow. There is enough genetic material there to save all of this year's births. Live births will generate more live births, in a few decades the age cohorts will have recovered.

Her voice booms over the Council, "Aneukarian civilization will survive. We will see to it. I ask you to let go of prejudices, abandon what we have always held to be true, to be pure. Not because we choose deviancy over our beliefs, but because we realize there are times when greater goals trump all other considerations." She pauses as a murmur rises from the chamber. It will take time, many hours, but eventually she will guide the Council to the best decision. And she will overcome her anger at the Humans.

Because all the DNA in the case, every last strand, comes from men.

xxx

* * *

_**Captain's Log** _\- We expect the Aneukarians will make the right choice and their civilization will survive. The Federation has been warned against establishing diplomatic relations until they receive confirmation that Aneukarian mentalities about men have evolved. In the meantime, Operation Aneukaria has been renamed Operation Cole in honor of crewmember Amanda Cole, who is posthumously awarded the Medal of Valor. Archer out.

THE END

* * *

_Author's Notes: _

_As I said, two stories from the same prologue. In order not to make this two completely independent stories I decided that some events would be the same, or almost the same, across both stories. Also I had the same number of chapters, and similar tone across both stories. That turned out to be much more complicated to do than I had anticipated. _

_I posted this in a review a while back, will complete it here:_

_ Act I - had to make the aliens a little different in Linnaeus otherwise they may reach the same conclusion as in Apoidea, that men are an easier option. In Linnaeus, the Aneukarians are aware of men but they since evolution suppressed them, Aneukarian civilization has concluded they must have been/were a lower life form._

_ Act II - the ship wakes up to the reality the other half is missing. In Apoidea, where 2/3 of the crew are missing (all the men), the disappearances are obvious. In Linnaeus, there are enough bodies around that it takes longer for the men as a whole to realize that the women are missing. You see individual men looking for specific women but they assume they must be somewhere else on the ship._

_ Act III - the prisoners wake up on the Tarorat. __In Apoidea twenty or so women must do the job of a crew of ninety. It is a gargantuan task. That will feed the dramatic tension of T'Pol exhausting herself running the ship. __In Linnaeus, sixty or so men must do the job of eighty, it's not such a stretch, and that dramatic tension disappears. It will come instead from Trip being told T'Pol is dead, hence the neural stick scene in this Act._

_Act IV - in Apoidea, we see T'Pol run herself into the ground, Vulcan fashion, serving as Captain, First Officer, Science Officer, and generally any other role that requires her expertise. Note that throughout Apoidea she's a Captain who relies on data for decisions. In Linnaeus, the Captain's angst's comes from Archer's hot-headed rush to Aneukaria without relying on data, and the dramatic tension from Trip being told T'Pol is dead. This chapter is written in the present tense in both stories._

_Act V - in both stories, everyone arrives at Aneukaria. The conditions in which the prisoners are held are also addressed in both, and in both there is the first white space encounter._

_Act VI - in Apoidea, Enterprise arrives at Aneukaria. Comments about the strategy to be adopted, whether the Aneukarian have defenses, what the sensors show about the planet are in Act VII in Linnaeus._

_Act VII - here you'll find references to football, baseball, and 'speak softly and carry a big stick'. The warp jump happens in this chapter in Apoidea, but in Chapter VIII in Linnaeus. Generally, the stories keep diverging more and more with each act, but there are common elements that tie them together. Some are exactly the same, others show in different form or at different times._

_Act VIII - in both stories, Operation Aneukaria starts. In Apoidea, this is the second part of trying to rescue the prisoners. In Linnaeus, they all get rescued in this chapter. __This chapter is written in the present tense in both stories._

_This is a general overview. Let me know if you have any questions._


End file.
